This book has a collection of interesting bike rides of varying lengths and difficulties. All rides have information on point-to-point mileage, nearby attractions (including Dairy Queens for stops on the way), and terrain/difficulty. The routes are great (have ridden several already), but the maps are only good to a certain level of detail. Bring a street-level map (and maybe a compass) if you don't know the area. If you are a recreational biker in the Twin Cities, this is a must-have.

The authors do two things in the book. First they give a brief overview of canoeing techniques, cautions and safety, and then a number of trips that can be taken in the Wisconsin, Upper Michigan, and Minnisota areas. Included are maps and sites, as well as cautions for rapids, barb wire, and other hazards which may need care or avoidance.

The area that was somewhat lacking was the way to piece the shorter trips together for a longer trip, since there was less camping information in the river descriptions. The inclusion of both whitewater sections as well as a number of sections of quiet water was helpful.

I bought this book because I was working in an Iowa prairie and wanted a good guide to the wildflowers. This is it! Large color photos are arranged by general blooming time/season. The text gives information about the plant, habitats, seasons, as well as some interesting folklore or other uses of the plant. This book certainly doesn't contain all flowering plants of the prairie, but it's a great start and a handy reference, especially for cross-referencing. Full-color photos are good, often showing both flowers and leaves.

I liked all of the photgraphs, except one. The calendar is fine, but difficult to see the numbers of the dates from even mid-way across a room. I wish the dates had been printed a little more boldly.

In general, the book is fairly well-written, although the fact that its authors are journalists is painfully obvious. I did not expect too much from this book, considering the reviews it received in the Wall St. Journal and NY Times, but gave it a try anyway. First, the story skips around too much. It is difficult at times to figure out what has happened and what temporal relation it has to what is going on in the text at that time. The authors were too busy trying to get across their points about Daley the political figure and neglected to really look at Daley the person. Granted, information about Daley was hard to get, but given the number and breadth of quotes from his son William and others, it should not have been that hard to flesh-out a better portrait of the man himself. Other biographies about figures just as large (if not larger) in importance are able to get their arms around their subject; these authors seemingly wanted to use the book just to get into print some comments about the failed CHA public housing program before Mayor Daley the Younger erases them from the face of the earth. I cannot recommend this book for anyone unfamiliar with Chicago politics or local issues; while this city is racially polarized and was even worse in the past, this is not the most important part of the story to why Richard J. Daley looms so large in the pantheon of American mayors. One cannot ignore the civil rights movement and what happened when it moved North; however, that is the fitting subject for a different book than one ostensibly about the life of Richard J. Daley. Overall, a C+.

I picked up this book after reading the very positive review in the Sunday New York Times. I knew little about Daley beyond the 1968 Convention. The authors succeed at telling the story not only of this one very intriguing man but also of how the modern city of Chicago emerged during his two decades in office. I would highly recommend the book to anyone interested in biography or modern American history, or of course, Chicago. The book is heavily sourced, both to local news accounts -- something which has been inexplicably criticized by other reviewers in this column -- as well as over a hundred interviews conducted by the authors (e.g., William Daley, Daniel Rostenkowski). This is a praiseworthy and fascinating effort by the writers to tell the story as it happened, not as various political or religious viewpoints would like it to be told.

Most of the people I know who are politically and historically aware are liberals, so it is rare for me to hear anyone say anything good about Daley the Elder. This book is harsh on Daley's racism, yet simultaneously understanding that the alternative was middle-class flight. The book is harsh on Daley's authoritarianism, yet says that at least Daley got the trash collected, and unlike New York, had the unions under control.

Another reviewer said something about the authors being to cynical in regards to Daley, but I actually thought Cohen and Taylor were very generous to the mayor. Cohen and Taylor constantly point out that Chicago weathered the urban crisis much better than most other Northern cities, including New York, which was bankrupt only a few years after Daley died.

recommended: The Ungovernable City: John Lindsay and the Struggle to Save New York - Vincent Cannato

The Immortal Class is itself somewhat like a challenging bike ride through the city. The self-conscious prose of the early chapters is something of an uphill battle in winter slush, but once the author settles into his pace, readers will find themselves dashing from page to page with the speed of a big-city bike messenger darting in and out of rush-hour traffic. And just as the bike messenger sometimes find himself upended by the unexpected opening of a car door in his path, sudden expository lumps (especially those when Culley's over-simplified musings on the evils of "car culture" are presented) occasionally send the unsuspecting reader tail over teakettle, upsetting the flow of the narrative.

Still, this is an impressive debut; with sharp dialogue, just enough of the jargon bike messengers use amongst themselves, and the author's knowledge of and love/hate relationship with Chicago, Travis Hugh Culley manages to lift this book far above the level of most memoirs, particularly those written by members of his generation. This is not a perfect book, by any means -- but few life stories succeed in giving the reader such a strong sense of BEING THERE. Culley didn't go to Chicago to become a bike messenger OR a writer. Yet his accidental sojourn into the realm of the bike messenger refined and redefined his sense of self, and the transformational nature of his journey comes through in his book; we are fortunate that the author has taken us along for the ride.

"The Immortal Class" is obviously a first book by an obviously gifted writer. To any boomer, even a cycling boomer, who lives in the 'burbs, Mr. Culley's book represents, in one volume, a double eye-opener to both the life of a bike courier and the importance of thoughtful city planning. As such, this book is actually two books artfully interweaved into one. The reader is both fascinated by the details and challanges of the world in which the urban bike messenger functions, as well as educated by Mr. Culley's interspersed treatise on urban planning as it relates to eco-friendly transportation. What is so significant about this book is that it moves suburban, automobile-dependant (and even Republican) individuals, such as myself, to rethink the applicability of human powered transportation as a viable alternative. I originally purchased this book because I have always been an avid (and sometimes competitive) cyclist. I finished this book re-evaluating my view of transportation. Even though the subject matter jumps around a bit, it is both an entertaining and thought provoking read. I highly recommend it! On Monday, I'll be riding my bike to work.

The tyranny of automobiles over our cities didn't have to be inevitable, and Travis Hugh Culley is out to make his city safe for bicycles. His lively book, _The Immortal Class: Bike Messengers and the Cult of Human Power_ is a combination memoir of his days as a bike messenger and a polemic against the tyranny of the automobile. Culley has an original voice, a poetic way of telling about his road adventures and the other bicyclists he encounters. He has more than his share of guts, and his book is a convincing examination of how to look at a problem from a different view, and how to make a difference.

A thwarted theater producer, he signed on to be a bike messenger in Chicago, a city he obviously loves and wants to care for. The descriptions of the career of bike messenger are the most vivid and enjoyable parts of the book. It is peppered throughout with radio jargon: "10-4, boss. I'm going to drop the bucket of Bucklin, grab a bouquet of Rosies, roll off the Fairbanks, and hit you on the outside of the Dentist." (Only some of the talk is translated; "the Dentist" is, for instance, the headquarters of the American Dental Association.) It is full of collisions which are rather beautifully and balletically described: "When my front wheel slipped out from beneath me, I fell forward, smacked the asphalt with my back, and began sliding in a straight line between the two cars. I could feel the white lines in the road skipping beneath my messenger bag, _thump-thump, thump-thump, thump-thump_..." After an accident, "Messengering bloody was kind of cool. Secretaries would offer me napkins and things to tell me that I needed to freshen the bandages... At first I couldn't distinguish sweat from blood, so I kept wiping everything with a blood-drenched hanky." Afterward he gets stitches at home from a medical resident, his girlfriend. Eating and drinking are altered for the messenger's exhausting routine; Howard Johnson's eggs, pancakes, and grits for breakfast, with snacks through the day of granola mixed with M&M's and dried fruit. "If I didn't eat at least three ounces by noon, I would be brain-dead by 1:30, slurring my words and overshooting my streets, stoned from depletion." I don't want to live this life, but it is a thrill to read about it.

Culley saves his harshest words for city and state governments that refuse to recognize bicyclists as road-users with road-privileges, for the police who break up his demonstrations, and for those of us who simply accept the automobile as the way it has to be. He is no longer a messenger; his injured knee eventually gave out, and he now commutes to his gallery job, by bicycle, to be sure. He is still active in advocacy for his dream transportation, and while his visions of a Chicago "covered with bike-only streets, quiet trains, and a patient, car-free delivery-based roadway" are overoptimistic, his idealism in placing bike messengers in the center of such a Chicago and thereby improving the streets, neighborhoods, atmosphere, and economies of the city he loves, is really rather sweet. He thinks there are plenty of good people out there who just don't know the alternative to SUV's and creeping commutes. They will if they read his entertaining book.

My husband is one of those crazy great lakes surfers. Over the years, I have traveled to various surf spots around the country and into Mexico with him (vacations are always governed by where the surf will be at that time). I have found that the great lakes surfers are the most misunderstood surfers around. Most ocean surfers just can't believe that there really are places to surf on the great lakes. Do you know how many times I have heard "surfing Lake Michigan, you've got to be kidding, were?" Grand Haven has one of the best spots around on the big lake. It was great to finally see a book letting people know that there are quite a few Great Lakes Surfers out there and they do know how hold their own while riding big waves. I personally have seen waves at Grand Haven in the fall stretching to 10 feet or higher. That does not stop surfers from going out and showing off their stuff. I am very glad to see that the great lakes surfers can hold their own in the surfing community along side ocean surfers and this book helps show that.
My husband has owned this book since if first came out and I can only say one more thing about it "Awesome Book!"

I have lived in Michigan for two years. I will be here two more because of my job and I will say this. I grew up in California and surfed most of my life and consider myself a "soul surfer". Someone who rides waves not to be seen but strictly for myself. I have talked to people when there was not so much developement on some ofthe coast line of California and what that was like. No crowds and no kooks. Michigan surfing is like that now. Michigan will never be California or the northwest coast but it is what a person (man, woman or child) that loves to surf can dream about. Get out of the car walk to the shore and paddle out wihtout passing neon surf shops and a bunch of "dudes" with brand new sticks that rarely get wet. Also, there is no sneaking out onto "private" property to get rid of crowds that are always present in California. I have surfed The Strand, Santa Cruz, Hunington, and numerous other places in California and Florida and I will say that I have never met more people that are simply surfing for the love of it. In short a great book about one of the few places left actually "just surf".

I grew up in Grand Haven/Spring Lake Michigan and moved away after high school. I have told everyone I know about surfing the Great Lakes and nobody understood until now. Thank you for putting out a book with so much soul. The Californian who said, "Small waves, Small book," well, I say, "Small mind, Small (...)" This book isn't about wave size it is about dedication and love for surfing, no matter what the size of the wave, or temp. of the water..It is not about the color of your wetsuits or coolness of your board, it is a book for anyone who loves the water and surfing. The people who took the time to compile their experiences are an inspiration to any surfer. They show dedication and comeradery. I will remember them everytime I get in the water.
This book is worth getting wherever you surf.

Thank you great lake warriors.
Stefanie Paige Friedman

This book is good for the southern half of the lower penninsula, but it is lacking in the Northern half from what I have found. I too have discovered that it shows roads where there are none, doesn't show roads that are there, and quite frequently (probably 30%) has the wrong road name. Don't venture into Norther Michigan and depend on this map or you'll end up in the middle of a National forest lost with out a reliable map to get you out. However, it is usually accurate in regards to highways and most main county roads.

Exploring the U.P. and northern lower Michigan has become a weekend tradition for myself and my friends over the past year or two, and since picking up a copy of this book, our DeLorme Atlas has become dogeared from all the use it has gotten. There is simply no better map in existence unless you have access to USGS maps (and those aren't very portable). With this atlas and a GPS you could be knocked out and dropped anywhere in Michigan, and when you came to, you could find your way out. Even without a GPS it is an incredible resource. This is, quite simply, THE definitive Michigan atlas. Accept no substitute.

I'm sorry to see some of my fellow Michiganders give this gazetteer a poor review, because I think it is excellent. My mother has a fear of driving on the interstate highways, so she's getting a copy for Christmas. And imagine how much better your vacations could be if you took to the back roads!

As a former Chicagoan who finds the history of the city fascinating, I appreciate the intent of this book. Tho I realize that histories of the city are written for a broad based audience, I am nevertheless frustrated when historical scenes are described without reference to specific locations / addresses, which of course would be meaningless to most readers who are not also residents. This book fills a void in that it attempts to be specific as to locations, in the way that the Dominic Pacyga / Ellen Skerrett book "Chicago City of Neighborhoods: Histories and Tours" accomplishes as a more general (and more accurate) historical guide. While "Return To The Scene" serves as a crude and basic guide, there are numerous errors which make the book virtually useless to anyone not familiar with the city. For example, Damen Avenue and Winchester Avenue are listed as an intersection when they are in fact parallel streets; in at least a dozen instances addresses on South Austin Blvd. in Cicero are given as West Austin; the Great Lakes Naval Training Center is located by the book in Glenview, IL. Ironically, in the bibliography, the author criticizes the book "Mr. Capone" as written by "two out-of-town authors whose unfamiliarity with Chicago neighborhoods is painfully evident". This book is of value only as a supplement to provide an historical context to a hopefully more accurate geographical guide to Chicago.

The fact that the cable documentary channels borrow heavily from the content of this book, and that the author is constantly showing up on Discovery, the Travel Channel and A & E talking about Windy City bad guys like Dillinger, Capone, et. al., says a lot about the quality of the writing and the public fascination with the subject matter. Return to the Scene is loaded with lot's of good stuff. It has a "film noir," shadows and night look and feel to it. But that's Chicago. And I highly recommend this book.

Let me first say that I hate "true crime" books.

I have never read "Helter Skelter." I do not possess any books on the Brown's Chicken and Pasta murders. I watched the infamous Geraldo Rivera "Al Capone's Vaults" special in 1987, but that was for a class assignment. Honest.

That having been said, this book is a fascinating read. Having lived in Chicago for eight years total, many of the events recounted in "Return to the Scene of the Crime" were merely hints, off-handedly dropped by natives in conversation. Unpleasant topics, deliberately skirted, best avoided.

However lurid, however horrifying, however infamous, Speck, Gacy, the Lexington Hotel, the Summerdale police scandal--these are all indelible parts of our town's history, and Lindberg writes of them with the sort of expertise that can only be gained from intimate familiarity, some from word of mouth, some from the papers, some from dusty files in ancient cabinets. The author's documentary sources have largely been in the care and custody of the Chicago Crime Commission since the events originally occurred, and it's hard to imagine a more authoritative repository for this information. As a survey work, you'd be hard-pressed to find better.

If there is a problem with the book, it is that a number of the maps cite incorrect locations for certain addresses provided in the text. I recall about half a dozen or so spots which were anywhere from a couple of blocks to a half-mile distant from the actual location referenced. In case of conflict, go with the text. If you're really touring these locations, though, Chicago's grid system was designed to make navigation easy, and I wish you the best of luck.

I was occasionally jarred by Lindberg's insertion of political commentary into what I felt would have been better served as an unbiased reporting of events. For instance, the author has quite a bit to say on the subject of inter-jurisdictional squabbling among the northwest suburban police departments during the Brown's investigation. A number of discursions are taken into the issue of police corruption (the section on the Summerdale police scandal is one of the largest in the book). These would have detracted from an academic historical text, but the savvy reader should keep in mind that this isn't *really* a book of history (not even really a tour guide), so much as a book of local folklore. Chicago is as much a city of myth and legend as any other in America. With that in mind, I feel the book as a whole is a success.

Fair warning, these tales really aren't for the squeamish. A number of stories involve some graphic detail, so be prepared.

While this book provides a large number of listings about the local parks and other places, there are serious flaws. First of all, there are no maps (!), and directions are minimal or missing from most listings. Second, a lot of the descriptions contain more details about the author's dogs than about the places they visited, which is fun, but largely unhelpful. Finally, a lot of the information is out of date (although that's par for the course with any guidebook). As a resident of Chicago, I found it only slightly useful. I think a visitor to the city would have a hard time using it at all.

A travel book without maps strikes me as not much of a travel book at all. While there is a lot of info. in this book, it's not easy-to-use. I'd rather have some directions, maps and tips than stories about Luna and Chaser and what kind of spaghetti sauce they prefer.

If you have a dog and live in Chicago, this book is a must. Just flipping through this book, you can quickly learn how dog friendly the Chicago are is.

Having recently moved to Madison, WI, I didn't realize what I had until it was gone (most parks prohibit dogs, and the designated "dog parks" are usually over run with extremely aggressive, untrained dogs that are a serious danger to you and your pet).

As one reviewer notes, you should phone ahead on some of the places in the book. The Renaissance Hotel downtown will allow small dogs (generally less than 15lbs), and even has a section on the room service menu for your furry friend.