The guide is good and will help any visitor to NYC to get along much better than without a guide. The truth is that even though the book is helpful, if you are used to travel with Frommer's books and never switched to Fodor's, I think there's no need to change. As a Frommer's brand buyer, I missed some features and easy reading when traveling with this book. However, This Fodor's book excells in 2 things, first, the full color photos at the beginning of the book are very inspiring, and second: the post-it flags included are a unique handy feature that will help you to highlight your most important sections of the book.

This guidebook gives you all the information you will need for a fun weekend--or week--in NYC. It even includes sample itineries to help you map out a course that won't have you running around the city confused. Leave the rest of the guidebooks at home. This one is all you need.

Anything and everything you want to know, see, and hear about New York. I'd be lost in New York without it. It even suggests schedules to go by so you don't miss out on the good stuff. It's great! Well worth for the low price.

NYC can be overwhelming even for the repeat visitor. Be prepared, and use Fodor's. What I loved about the guide is that it breaks the city down into neighborhoods. You can pick the ones you want to visit, and wander through a different one each day. I originally tried to visit NYC with a map highlighted with the sights I wanted to see. It was a wild goose chase! The suggested itineraries in Fodor's made it easier, and I wasn't harried by running all over the city.

Fodor's has done good by NYC here. This tome is packed with juicy tid-bits throughout. If you 'Need A Break?' during your walking, there are literally hundreds of highlighted cafes, corner deli's, candy shops, and bakaries for you to peruse-separated by neighborhood and borough.

This book is divided into different chapters, the first dealing mainly with Manhattan and its different neighborhoods. Want to visit the grill/movie studio owned by actor Robert De Niro? It's in here. Want to visit the former homes of any number of famous New Yorkers? Or the bar in which poet Dylan Thomas supposedly drank himself to death? The restaurants where Hemingway and others wrote? Prohibition-era speakeasy's? All these and much more are expounded upon.

There is a dizzying array of info on museums, nightclubs, music clubs, restaurants, transit systems, and tours. My wife and I have been devouring this book in the months before our trip to NYC. It has been a blast. The beginning of the book also includes some nice color photography of various key sights and Fodor's has done readers a great service by listing its 'moments not to miss' on one page (things like where to be for a great sunset or the most romantic restaurant etc.).

Also helpful are numerous itineraries for walking tours based on a 3 day or 5 day trip to NYC. The inside cover includes a checklist of items to cover in the months up to your trip (reservations, finances etc.)

After returning from our trip, my wife and I can say that this book was a MASSIVE help to us. We carried it around in our bag and stopped each day once or twice to review it as we walked around. A great resource.

Absoluetly a GREAT BOOK! From the pull out map, to the pictures this book is just jam packed with information!

It includes categories such as: The Arts, Lodging, Nightlife, Shopping, and many more. Everything you need to know about the greatest city in the world is in this book!

Perhaps one of my favorite things about this book is that it has up to the date website information. I was able to purchase many of my tickets for attractions in advance thanks to this feature which allowed me to avoid long lines.

Other great features include addresses and telephone numbers, fax numbers, admission prices, and opening hours. Never worry about not having enough $$ or arriving too late to find the attraction closed.

Use this book as your guide and you are guaranteed to have a wonderful visit to NYC!

While this seemed like a good guide while planning the trip, in actual fact it was not terribly useful. It's poorly organized, so trying to figure out, on the fly, if there is a decent restaurant near an attraction means flipping back to the index too many times. The author also gave starred attraction prominence to a couple of places where she qualified it in the description with, it may take too long to get here for too little to do. Hmmm. Also the restaurant guidelines needed some sort of a noise index. This is one of those books that assumes kids will only be happy in an atmosphere of Disneyland-like frenzy. I like my kids to eat a normal variety of food (not chicken fingers or cheeseburgers only) in normal restaurants. The two restaurants we tried from the book were so unbelievably loud with non-stop sensory stimulation we couldn't speak to one another. After that I ducked into a bookstore and bought Fodor's Around NYC With Kids and packed this one permanently in the suitcase. I want a guide that lets me know if a place can tolerate a crying baby -- I don't need the waiters always dressed in "character" doing floor shows to get my kids to eat.

Our family just returned from a long weekend in NYC. We found the book invaluable. The book recommended the Doubletree Hotel as the best 'kid-friendly' place to stay, and they were right on. The rooms were spacious, modern and clean. The hotel also had a great location right on Times Square. The book also suggested John's Pizza which turned about to be a great call. The pizza was great, the restaurant loud enough for our kids and we were able to walk right in and get a table on a Saturday night.

Our family just returned from a long weekend in NYC, and this book was invaluable. The book's recommendation of the Doubletree Hotel as the best 'kid-friendly' place in town was right on. Spacious rooms, modern, clean and a great location. The book suggested John's Pizza which was another great call. The pizza was great, the restaurant was loud enough to handle the kids and we were able to get a table quickly on a Saturday night.

If you want to stay in the cocoon of midtown Manhattan don't bother with this book. But if you want to see the REAL, non-homogenized-Middle-American New York, read this. If you want to see the outer boroughs, read this to know what's interesting. Thanks to this book, I discovered:

*Jackson Heights (mostly Columbian) *Brighton Beach (mostly Russian) *Greenpoint (Polish) *Bensonhurst (the REAL Little Italy) *Belmont (another Italian area in the Bronx; I liked Bensonhurst better, its easier to reach by subway, bigger and better kept) *3 separate Hasidic Jewish areas (Crown Heights, Boro Park and Williamsburg) *Washington Heights (Dominician/Puerto Rican) *Astoria (Greek) *Flushing (Chinese) *Atlantic Avenue (Arabic) *Midwood (Syrian Jewish)

One caveat: if you are interested in one particular restaurant call to make sure it is open.

I found that this guide assists you in discovering the diversity, background, and curiosity within Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and Bronx neighborhoods. I used it to uncover new restaurants and cuisines, especially authentic, unpretentious, inexpensive ones, whenever visiting the Big Apple.

It is great when you go into neighborhoods where they just don't speak English and often new immigrants (natives) on the street or over the phone are too myopic in giving directions.

It is great for the NYC visitor as exploring Queens and Brooklyn by subway doesn't come without some intrepidation, especially in the evening. But after qualifying the areas that I do know quite well, Little Italy and Chinatown, I read areas that I recently visited Koreantown, Manhattan and Little Columbia in Jackson Heights, Queens. I now value the insight and comprehensive amount of research the author presents.

Each ethnic group has a clear vignette on when they came and settled, the reasons for immigrating, noteworthy aspects of their culture, political and religious organizations, and restaurants, markets, shops, museums, and cultural activities. Some 500 pgs worth!

He gives a lot of practical info, phone numbers, hours open, specialties, so that when you are on a quest, you can find it. Lots of factoids and city trivia are sprinkled everywhere. Many opinions were on the mark. Good index.

The first reviewer needs to read more thoroughly: a) Russian Jews in Brighton Beach, p 223-8; b) Germans in Ridgewood, Queens (next to Glendale), p 55-7; c) even a random tourist like me knows that The Bronx starts at 140-150th St, a typo.

My main critique is that the author could have included simple "bigger-picture" maps showing the neighborhoods and Metro stops to make it more tourist friendly. While he gives general directions on where they are located, often I couldn't determine which borough it was in.

I found this book accurate and amazing! Mr. Leeds highlights so many neighborhoods with a keen understanding for New York and its cornucopia of ethnic flavor. Mr. Leeds, adding to what few tour guides know and understand, recognizes the recent Jewish immigrants to Brighton Beach-- in addition to pinpointing the best restaurants (Russian, Germnan, Italian Polish, Puerto Rican, etc.) with a simplicity, profundity, and flair that makes visiting them extra special!

I'd get my money back on this one, if I could. As a first-time traveler to NYC, I found this book absolutely less than worthless. It's probably better-suited to use by people who are experienced NY visitors, and are looking for new and different things to do, but even then I can't see how it would be worth spending the money for the hardcover. We made an honest try to use it, but found it essentially no help at all, and it spent the entirety of our trip sitting in a pile on the hotel dresser.

City Secrets New York City is not only an amazing guide to the lesser known sites and sounds of New York but it is the perfect gift for those traveling to the great city. I find the strolls through the neighborhoods helpful and amusing. The commentary offered by the contributors is inciteful and offers an education to the great city rarely found in other travel guides.

I am having my wedding in New York City and along with our "save the date cards" we have sent out copies of City Secrets New York to guests. I believe City Secrets is a charming primer for anyone planning to visit the city!

In the rapidly changing face of New York City fast becoming another strip mall full of chain shops and uniformity, it is refreshing to note that yes, real New York still exists--those unappreciated, and undervalued landmarks, shops, and restaurants that truly define NYC. Famous luminaries living in the city--architects, artists, curators, and gourmets--guide you to those hidden gems through witty, and informative stories on the cultural, and historical significance of each place. Entries are organized by neighborhood, and comes complete with addresses, phone numbers, hours of operation, and directions. City Secrets is a must for saavy travelers, and residents alike--there are many things here I never knew about. rkchin

There is a lot of history in New York City and the surrounding area, much of it baseball and the author certainly covers it well. Although much of what is in the book can certainly be found in other baseball books it is still a worth while read. I realize it would have added much to the size of the book, but I would have liked to see more pictures such as of the present site of Lou Gehrig's birthplace on page 162 and of The Lambs' Club on page 212. I found a few errors of which a few are inevitable, I suppose. On page 196 the author says Bob Friend was the winning pitcher after the Giants' last game in the Polo Grounds (1957) and nine years later he was the winning pitcher in the first game at Shea Stadium (1964). This would be seven years. On page 73 the name of Billy Jurges was spelled "Jurgez". The most glaring mistake, however, came on page 80 when it is mentioned that Lou Gehrig was honored at Yankee Stadium on July 4, 1940. The correct year, of course, is 1939. I would give the book a tough three stars, maybe even closer to four, but that Gehrig mistake really bothered me.

Having borrowed the book from a friend and having read it with great pleasure, it has been placed on my Christmas wish list. It will provide me with a guide on future tours into New York to see the many sites related to baseball events that Reisler has done such an excellent job of describing.

In amusing vignettes, the author takes us from place to place, and from one era to another, in the annals of baseball. Each page opens the reader to entertaining narratives of baseball's interesting locations and exciting personalities. A grand slam.

This is a reference book. It is not amusing or entertaining. I was looking forward to learning more about my new home, and I did learn a few things. However, the consumer should be warned: this is a dry, factual scholarly work, not a piece of light reading.

This is a wonderful collection of ancedotes and historical tidbits about Philadelphia's streets. The street names are listed alphabetically, with a few paragraphs about how each street got its name. Some listings have more content than others. There's also an interesting section on house-numbering, which didn't start until the late 1700s. Another section lists when specific roads operated as toll roads between 1711 and 1918.

In the book's introduction, which I also found interesting, the author explains some of the obstacles in doing this project--particularly the 'lack of cohesive record-keeping by the city' and the misinformation and erroneous data in the 'seemingly authoritative newspaper clippings.'

I would've liked to have seen longer descriptions and some street maps included for reference. Overall though, it's an excellent book for anyone interested in Philadelphia. In addition to teachers, I think it would also benefit anyone putting together local tours or a 'historical neighborhood' association.

If you have ever wondered how a street got its name, this is the book you! Robert I. Alotta did an impressive amount of research and has compiled a fascinating little resource on Philadelphia street names. While most Philadelphians can easily figure out who Ben Franklin Parkway or John F. Kennedy Boulevard is named after, how about some of the more obscure names? Even the streets that aren't named after people have interesting historical facts. Presented in alphabetical encyclopedic style order, this book makes a better reference than an interesting read. However, I found it to be good fun to look up familiar street names and discover the meanings behind them. For the interested, this book is well worth the investment.

The compiler, "a very senior figure in ... Thoreauvian studies," as another reviewer refers to him, has simply changed the title of his 1982 Farrar, Straus, Giroux book of excerpts from Thoreau's writings (relating to Thoreau in the mountains) and republished it with Beacon Press. There's nothing new here at all, just republished stuff from almost twenty years ago! One would think that this fellow of "impeccable" scholarship would have had the decency to at least mention somewhere in this compilation that it is, in fact, nothing more than a reprint.

I wish that the anonymous reviewer from Lincoln who is a Thoreauvian scholar in his own right had "faith in a deed" and had indeed placed his name here as he was willing to do in other reviews.

Henry David Thoreau is perhaps the most famous of the nineteenth century American naturalists and left behind a large body of work that is still very much read and appreciated today. Walking With Thoreau comprises Thoreau's writings about his own hikes up nine New England mountains including the Wachusett and Greylock in Massachusetts; Kathahdin and Kineo in Maine; Wantastiquet, Fall Mountain, Washington, Lafayette, and Monadnock in the White Mountains of New Hampshire and Vermont. Thoreau expert William Howarth enhanced Walking With Thoreau with insightful commentaries for the contemporary reader replete with historical facts and anecdotes on Thoreau that are relevant to his tales of mountain experiences. Replete with specially drawn sate maps and day-by-day itineraries, Walking With Thoreau readily lends itself to anyone wishing to hike the same routes as were once taken by Thoreau. Walking With Thoreau is a "must" for all students of his work and writings, outdoor enthusiasts seeking to retrace the great man's steps, as well as armchair travelers with an appreciation for observant essays on hiking mountains in a bygone era.

Scheper-Hughes's book is certainly the most impacting book I have read in months. I cannot call it entertaining but it is riveting in presenting a mind-boggling situation of abject poverty in Northeastern Brazil with its consequent infant and child mortality and impacts on the family structure.

Death Without Weeping is a very original, very relevant, and carefully written book although not perfect. The book is the result of extensive field research by Dr. Scheper-Hughes, Professor of Anthropology at the University of California at Berkeley but nevertheles very readable. I could understand and enjoy most of it without having had extensive training in Anthropology.

The author does a wonderful job in translating Alto do Cruzeiro reality into something the average American can understand. This "translation" certainly adds a bias but is still indispensable in my opinion. I consider that the author's religious beliefs strongly affected the outcome of the book and that I think could have been avoided.

I understand that the author has it's ethics and wouldn't reveal in the text the actual location name for Bom Jesus da Mata. I'm not tied by the same ethics so I can tell it: Bom Jesus da Mata is actually Timbauba, a 60,000 inhabitants town on the outskirts of Recife. The book subtitle, "The Violence of Everyday Life in Brazil" couldn't be worse. Timbauba is not Brazil. It has its own very specific problems and to read the book without understanding the great diversity among Brazil's regions would be very unfair to the country. Even in a local scale, Alto do Cruzeiro is not Timabuba and Timbauba is not Pernambuco. If you read the book don't rule out the possibility of going down to Brazil and having a wonderful time there. Tourism is a very good way of alleviating if not solving the problems presented in the book.

I have read now dozens of books written in English by the so-called Brazilianists who most of the times are not Brazilians themselves. Most of the books have the same problem of Death Without Weeping: there's a total sloppiness in spelling the Portuguese words. I can't believe UC Berkeley couldn't hire a Brazilian graduate student to proofread the originals. Moreover, the Geraldo Vandre quote on the very first page of the book, which gives the book its name was completely fabricated. Disparada is a great song and for writing songs such as "Disparada" and "Para Nao Dizer Que Nao Falei Das Flores", Geraldo Vandre was captured and tortured by the military dictatorship in Brazil. He was later released but severely braindamaged. However, the verses Scheper-Hughes quoted do not exist in "Disparada".

I was shocked to learn on the book's Epilogue who Seu Jacques, whom the book is dedicated to, was. But this suspense I'm not going to break.

Leonardo Alves - Houghton, MI - October 2002

Nancy Scheper-Hughes' book "Death Without Weeping" is an outstanding piece of a true anthropological approach to studying a difficult concept: Mothers in Brazil do not mourn for dead infants. Coming from America, it seems difficult to understand the lack of innate "Mother Love." Scheper-Hughes looks at both the political-economic problems in Brazil as a coutry as well as the beliefs and meanings that mothers living in a Shantytown place on their infants (dead or alive). By looking at records, talking to officials, and researching the history of Brazil, Nancy Scheper-Hughes is able to understand how the state of the political and econimic system in Brazil is partially responsible for the horrible deaths and indifferent mothers living in these shantytowns. Alternatively she has been able to get a true understanding of what meanings these women place on their infants death. By looking at both sides, the way Scheper-Hughes has done, we can obtain a better understanding of the true problem and how the people deal with it. Although Nancy Scheper-Hughes does not offer solutions in this book, she tells all of the clues needed to find a solution. Great Book!

I have seen death without weeping. The destiny of the Northeast is death. Cattle they kill, But to the people they do something worse. --Geraldo Vandre, Disparada

"Death Without Weeping: Violence of Everyday Life in Brazil" is a brilliant anthropological and sociological depiction of life in the Nordeste region of Brazil. In Death Without Weeping, Scheper-Hughes carefully analyzes the Mother-Child relationship in a region of Brazil with the highest infant mortality rate in Latin America. Centered in the village of Alto do Cruziero, Scheper-Hughes continues to work with the community she had first joined as a Peace Corps volunteer decades before. Rekindling her relationship with the villagers and the land, she takes a new perspective to study the emotional and physical strain on a region where every life is touched with the pain of infant mortality. She examines the frightening reality of a place where mothers have absolutely no safety net and cannot protect their children from the disease, hunger, and destitute living conditions.

Scheper-Hughes further discusses the role of international corporations and their influence (usually negative) in the Nordeste region.

Death Without Weeping is absolutely brilliant. Scheper-Hughes is at her finest, and her work is impeccable. This is one of the finest works of sociology and anthropology I have read.

Having spent much time in the Adirondacks, and with a child at school in Saratoga Springs, I was extermely disappointed with the scope of information in this "complete guide". While the historical, geographical and quasi-scientific narrative that Ms. Folwell has compiled is interesting, the information that a traveler/vacationer/tourist (especially one who's new to the area) would need is sorely lacking. The meager information that is available is unusually skewed toward what seems to be the author's limited personal taste in facilities, activities and likes.

Apparently, Ms. Folwell does not like hotels or resorts, since most of them (and there are several in the Adirondacks) were glaringly missing from this book. Also oddly missing were some of the best restaurants in Lake Placid, Saranac Lake and Saratoga Springs. (I concede that "best" is subjective, but there were just too many missing from her book.)

The Adirondacks are a haven for camping, yet this book glossed over that topic with a minimum of information. What about the amazing campsites on the islands of Indian Lake? Or the available lean-to locations in the High Peaks region?

Finally, the organization of this book is antithetical to a good travel guide. Rather than approach the Adirondacks by region, the author divides the book by topic. Since the Adirondacks are relatively large, it's most likely that a visitor will be spending the bulk of her time in a single area. This guide offers no comprehensive list of data about any given area or town, and requires you to jump around and compile your own data sheet if you're staying in one area.

Rather than "A Complete Guide", it would be more appropriate for this book to be called "An Introduction to the Area," since that is in fact exactly what it is, and no more.

The Adirondack Book is written with a heart for the place it describes, and with a nose for just the right level of detail. The author is clearly a native of the area, with an understanding of its people and its ways, and this shows in her tack on nearly everything she wrtes. Her descriptions of many of the events and places are dead on, and good information is given to the reader about how to find said place or event, and how to find out more information about the subject. Her asides in particular (for example, short essays about blackflies, wildlife, and hypothermia) are well written and dead on target, great advice for the traveler. Finally, she resists speaking overly much about the many topics, and this is a good thing: a book fully describing every last item she mentions would be several thousand pages long! Still, Folwell's book is a boon for the traveler, a great starting place for exploring the biggest park in the contiguous 48.

The only drawback in this book is that of organization. The book is sectioned by activity/attraction, then by region, then by town, instead of region/town/activity. This makes it much more difficult to, say, find out everything you want to know about Speculator or Lake Placid. Still, the entries one finds are clear and concise, and with some extra effort you can find all you want.

Ok, I like to shop when I travel, so I was pleased (make that delighted) to see lots of quirky stores owned by artists and crafters listed in the Adirondack Book. Their stuff was good, not tacky or touristy. And when I go shop, I like to stay in interesting places and eat at restaurants where an actual chef prepared the meal I found that info in the Adirondacks book with more detail than Fodor's, etc.