Another great travel book from the British Time Out people, in the tried and true Time Out format: Not alot on history or architecture, like you get with the Eyewitness or Knopf guides, but a straight to the point attitude in a easy to research portable book up-to-date and very helpful. The Time Out viewpoint is that partaking of the life of the city is as important as looking at the sights, so there is always great information on what to do after the museum closes, how to enjoy the city. There are 75 pages on sightseeing, a 114 pages on Arts & Entertainment, plus sections on bars, restaurants, and shopping. Each section is broken down by location, so the restaurants in Soho are listed togther, as are the bars in Midtown, which is the right way to do it.
Great for research before the trip to get an idea of what you plan to do &when, with websites for the individual places listed along with phone numbers and hours of operation. The maps are good; there are some pictures (nothing like Eyewitness). This is a good book to get before you go to help plan your trip to get the most enjoyment out of it, especially for nightlife.

The Time Out Guide to New York is, in my opinion, the best general guidebook you can buy to the city. It's updated annually, so the material is fresh, but best of all it brings the Time Out attitude and style to the guide book series. It's filled with full color photos (similar to the Knopf guides) and the listings contain not only the usual sights, stores and attractions, but also some of the more funky, out of the way places.

Plusses:

-Comprehensive coverage of most areas (see restaurant note below) -Lots of photos -Web site addresses for most listings -Content is also on their web site (www.timeout.com and www.timeoutny.com ) and updated regularly. -Not just the usual "everything is great" attitude that you get with Frommers or Fodors. -Contains ads for shows, hotels, restaurants (I like this as it gives more of a picture of the item. NOTE: There's big disclaimer in the front stating that even though they accept ads, their reviewers are independent)

-Small enough to fit in purse or (larger) back pocket. -Good cross referencing between sections

Minuses:

-Restaurant section not comprehensive. It's still very good, but selective. This may be due to the fact that they also publish a very comprehensive restaurant guide to NY. -Portions of the museum section are a bit skimpy. For example, the Knopf guides have 3 or 4 pages on the Metropolitan Museum, including floor plans and highlights of each collection, whereas this guide has about two column-inches of text on the Met. -No web site listings for restaurants.

As I said, this is the best guide to New York I've found (and I have them all). Highly recommended.

The Struggle of the Oppressed
by: barbaragreenway 04/27/03 02:27 pm
rating:
This is the perfect book to be reading right now with the current situation in the Middle East! It quite dramatically refutes the
argument that there are some populations in some countries that are just too backward, too beaten down, too victimized, to
determine their own destiny.
The account is of the First Congress of the People of the East that took place in 1920 in Baku, Azerbaijan. Here some 2000
delegates of workers and peasants met to debate and discuss the critical questions of their day---issues like national
oppression, women?s rights, and economic and social pressure in the midst of a worldwide depression. In this book you can
read the actual transcripts of debates on Zionism and Palestine; the debates over religious freedom of Muslims and the right of
women to participate as equals at the conference itself. There are also wonderful photographs of the different participants to
help put faces to the debates.
You cannot read this book and not be inspired by what occurred at this historic conference.
.
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Here we are fresh into a new year with the world bitterly divided over a region and over issues that, under different leaders, were cooperatively addressed more than 70 years ago. That's the essence of what I take from reading "To See the Dawn."

The book is a collection of reports and proceedings from 1920, from when the First Congress of the Peoples of the East was held in Baku, a port city on the Caspian Sea in Central Asia.

At the time, Baku was the capital of Soviet Azerbaijan, and the congress was called by the Azerbaijan Communist Party in cooperation with the Communist International under the leadership of Lenin and the Bolshevik Party.

The congress drew more than 2,000 delegates from workers' parties and anticolonial groups from across the region, including Afghanistan, Turkestan, India and elsewhere. These delegates attended the gathering to learn more about the revolutionary process unfolding in the Soviet Union, and inspired by the Bolshevik leadership's support for self-determination and the anticolonial struggle.

That was key, the reports in this collection show, because the Russian czar and the old colonial powers of Great Britain and France played up religious, ethnic and national differences as a big part of their strategy of keeping working people divided. When the delegates realized that these differences masked much of what they had in common as working people and farmers, it opened the road to cooperation and trust.

This book illustrates how powerful that lesson could be once again in that still-divided part of the world.

What a moving and inspiring poet! Ms. Khanna's literary power is her ability to majestically carry you right with her on her literal and revelatory journey. She successfully captures the reader in her struggle for understanding of her Indian and American backgrounds. I felt priveleged to have privy to her thoughts, and hope for a time again to enjoy her savory prose.
What do we have to look forward to, Van?!
Thanks.
Barbara R. Akin
Falls Church, VA.

What a incredible poet! You could feel the heat, smell the street and see the sights of India through Ms. Khanna's potent descriptions.

This book not only gives advice on places to go in Indiana and Illinois -- it tells you so engagingly that it's fun to read! Well written, and unusually enlightening.

loved the book! a must-have! riveting! esp. glad to see mention of Rancool, IL 61866.

...such a handsome photo of the authors.

can't wait for the next edition!

Author, Alice Vollmar has live in Minnesota for the past 28 years. Who better to write a book about the area? Divided by region, this book offers information on dining, recreation, lodging, camping, and rates each using a four star system. It takes the guess work out of planning a trip to the area. A great guide for visitor and resident alike.

In addition, "101 Things To Do on the Wisconsin Great River Road", is a great gift idea.

This travel guide book is one that you'll actually keep in the front seat of the car and use. It's a nice size and contains lots of extra resource information, too.

This guidebook never leaves my car! It always tells me something new to discover about Tennessee!

Cathy and I looked through many guide books before attempting to write Traveling Tennessee. We found none covered the state in our easy helpful style (see Traveling the Trace and Traveling the Southern Highlands).

We followed the pioneers through the state from east to west giving you a brief history of the people and the area, and what you would find there today. Tennessee offers many pleasant surprises along its highways from scenic sites to activies you may participate in. For instance, you know of the Great Smoky Mountains but do you know the quite side of the Smokies? where Tennessee's first gold rush was? about a failed Utopia brought back to life? the courthouse stolen in the middle of the night? or where you can swim at the end of a scale model of the Misssissippi River?

We strove to give you information and details about interesting attractions all across Tennessee as well as B&Bs, dining, shopping, special events, camping, and where to get more information. More than 200 photos help tell the stories in this 316-page guide.

I wasn't certain what to expect when I got this book. I was a bit concerned that since it was written about experiences in the 1960's that it would feel a bit dated. Although the 1960's view of the future of East Africa's peoples and wildlife is not entirely accurate, I am finding the book to be an excellent way to prepare for a trip to Tanzania--for someone wanting a combination of background on the peoples, landscape and wildlife. Matthiessen's usual subdued, to me, dry style seems leavened a bit by his awe. And the account of the elephant researcher who's 'close encounter' approach puts Matthiessen off his feed, was really enjoyable to me--a departure from his usual, very dry approach. I recommend this one to anyone interested in the peoples and wildlife of Eastern Africa.

Is there anyplace wild enough to lift the weight that Occidental culture has placed on our shoulders? Africa, where the first man walked erect, may be the last place where man can feel awed enough by Nature to try and remember that he, also, is just another among the millions of other species that populate the planet. Paul Bowles, Bruce Chatwin, Doris Lessing, Isaak Dinesen and Peter Mattieshen found that answer, and shared the experience. In Mattieshen's poetic account, the tragic and fabulous beauty of a continent that has been devastated by greed and war is revealed, as the impossibility of traveling Africa and not falling in love with it and being changed by it forever.

Having read several of the many books about the Gulf War, I have discovered that all of them contain (as you would expect) elements that are biased by the author's viewpoint. This book is no exception, exhibiting the bias of the reporter's perspective that the military/politicians un-necessarily restricted access by the public (ie the press corp). However, by a lot hard work in utilizing the extensive resources widely available after the conflict, it does overcome this bias and thereby provide the broadest and most complete overall description of the origins, political manuervering, military planning, and actual execution of the initial defensive and subsequent offensive phases of the war, of any account I have read. And it does so in a very interesting and informative manner.

I am especially impressed with the personalized style of the presentation of both the political and military events, and also with the excellent graphics and tactical/strategic analysis used to explain the overall context of those events. The combination of broad scope, professional graphics, and personal accounts of individual participants placed in the context of overall tactics/strategy really brings the "history to life".

This book has become my "baseline" for understanding / interpreting the other very good (and not so good) accounts of the war. It provides the timeline and outsider "truthline" of the events of the war from which to put into perspective, and base my own opinions of, the accounts of the war by the various individuals with a more personal stake in their presentation. I do not take the "facts" presented in this book as "absolute", but feel they probably contain less "self interest" than other accounts by other authors with "reputations" to foster or protect.

In that respect, this book has increased my "enjoyment" of the other books on the subject as I compare and contrast the "issues" of the war as described by each of the involved individuals who have a particular axe to grind concerning those issues: "a tactical versus a strategic air war campaign", "functional versus by service organization of the coalition forces", "who was responsible for establishing the 'left hook' strategy of the ground war", "did we start the ground war too soon and not give airpower a chance to 'win the war'", "was the progress of the VII Corps too slow ?", "was the progress of the 1st and 2nd Marine Divisions too fast ?","who stopped the Khafji excursion (airpower, marines, or Saudis)", "did we learn and then utilize the right lessons from the Khafji fight", and - last but most importantly - the key question: "did we stop the war too soon and therefore fail to accomplish the goals established at the outset of the war ?"

Buy this book to get a very interesting, readable, and definitive overview of the Persian Gulf War. Then sit back and form your own opinions of both the big and little issues from the accounts by Schwarzkopf, Powell, Horner, Franks, Boomer, et al

(Bye the bye ... I find it fascinating that the same above issues (as they applied at the time) were hotly contested in accounts of the WWII Central Pacific and SW Pacific campaigns! Truly, if we do not learn from history, we are bound to repeat it. )

Triumph Without Victory is the best account and review of how the Gulf War happened. This book is filled with amazing details and facts that make it a true corner stone in the history of this War. From the international effort to restrict Iraqi weapons access to the planning room of Gen. Schwarzkopf, this book recordes what happened. Having been in the Gulf War I was truelly amazed at the amount and scope of information contained in this book. I read this book when it was first published and will never forget it. The true testament of this book is its recording of many of the important facts that some governments would like to forget. The authors obviously went to great lengths to research, corrolate, and record not only the most famous events but the small and possibly most important events. The secret effort to bomb Saddam Hussein, the US destroyed chemical weapons facility and its toxic cloud, and the CIA computer virus in the Iraqi radar system. The purpose of this book was to record history, it did just that and it did it well.

The two authors are very knowledgeable about the region and give the most comprehensive and updated analysis of the Caspian area, covering both the political and economical parameters. The book has an impressive bibliography, which makes it an excellent research tool for whoever is interested in expanding on the subject. Very well written.

In the decade since the breakup of the Soviet Union, we
were witness to the maneuvering and positioning of various
neighbor states and global powers as the battle for world
energy grows hotter.

I found this book to be a great introduction to the Caspian
region. Before this book, researchers and policymakers had
to look hard(and in many places) to find objective sources
of information that answered all their questions. This book
contains all that one needs to quickly learn about the region,
its history, politics, current problems, and perspectives for
the future.

Policymakers around the world recognize the strategic
importance of geopolitical control of the region. What I found
most striking is the equal attention given to all of the
political players in the world and not just the point of view
of Moscow or Washington.

I also appreciated the attention given to the Caspian's
environment, which is currently threatened to become another
Aral sea.

This book is for everyone starting from diplomats to
individuals who have an interest in the region and anyone
in between. I'll be recommending it to journalist friends
of mine who are covering or aspire to cover the region
in the future.

Turning Water into Politics is an excellent general survey of the Israeli - Palestinian conflict with particular emphasis on the fundamental problems of water allocation in an area with a limited supply of water. It includes a review of the factors leading to the creation of the state of Israel, the 1967 war and the resulting continuing tensions in the Middle East.

I was impressed by the author's objectivity in presenting a detailed review of the economical, technical and political positions of both sides of a very intractable situation. I was encouraged by the concluding chapter, which provides an detailed analysis of possible strategies for resolving the fundamental problems dealing with water use in the Middle East. This book provides a timely, comprehensive and well-written basis for understanding the almost daily news reports of the ongoing negotiations involving this explosive situation.

The result of several trips to Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, more than 70 interviews with Israelis and Palestinians, meticulous and careful research, this book is "must" reading for those interested in the conflict between the Palestinians and the Israelis. It examines just one point of contention, water, but makes it clear that this resource is in very short supply for both peoples, and is inequitably distributed between them. It also lays out in considerable detail the water crisis of catastrophic proportions which both peoples face.

The book is accurate and informed, clear and well-written, scrupulously documented, and always fair to both sides. It reads easily, eschews jargon, and has just enough technical information to substantiate the arguments of the author. Whether one is interested in water and environmental issues, the domestic politics of Israel, or the struggle and negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israelis, this book can be read in order to get a broad understanding of facts and issues.

The author's argument is that politics has caused the conflict between the two peoples, not water, and politics will resolve the conflict, but in order for this to take place there must be enough water for all, and it must be equitably distributed.