Recently we visited California for the first time. We covered San Francisco, LA and San Diego in one week. We had planned everything before-hand using the National Geographic Traveller and our experience is it turned out very useful in that respect. It exaclty tells you what is a must see and what looks good from where. So we were prepared and we expected certain things. For e.g. this book says that the views from Coit Tower are breathtaking and they really are so. We had to walk up from China Town to Coit Tower on the very steep streets of San francisco. But once we were at Coit Tower the views of the city were excellent. This book also mentions some driving tours which are very useful. One thing I would like to mention here. We had rented a mustang convertible to drive the Calif Highway One along the coast. Our friends recommended to take the 17 mile drive on our way and we were surprised why it was not mentioned in this book. But after driving through the seventeen miles we continued the drive along Highway One. And let me tell you the 17 miles drive is nothing compared to the gorgeous views on Rte One. If you ask me, please avoid the 17 miles drive it is just a rip off of 8 bucks. There is much more beauty ahead on Rte One. We should have listened to the book, the book was right by not mentioning it!

Ok, may be not the best - who judge, but very close too. Do not think, just buy and enjoy reading and traveling.

As expected, this book has some of the best photographs and illustrations available. What was more surprising in a travel guide was the quality of writing, the great social insights, and the historical contextualization. While Critser touches all the necessary points of interest, he also discovers hidden marvels from excellent cheap restaurants to the often unsung corners of L. A. If you are going to buy one guide, this is it.

Being an Eagle Boy Scout, I was prepared for everything. In fact, I was so prepared I could hardly carry my pack. Ray Jardine has shown me a new way: less is more. Less weight is more enjoyment while backpacking.

The book was great if you can keep an open mind. The book can really change your hiking style.

Last summer I walked 515 miles using the techniques in Jardines book. I walked through the entire state of Washington. I encountered rain, snow, mosquitos galore and a host of other problems that were all easily handled with the techniques outlined in Ray's book. I even made my own backpack on an old Singer sewing machine with the plans in the book. I wore running shoes the whole way. I finished the hike in 23 days, counting the five rest days I took. This book is excellant, not to mention well written.

This cookbook is magnificent! With breathtaking photography,stellar production values and innovative recipes which emphasize the unique bounty of the Pacific Northwest, what more could anyone ask for in a cookbook? Grab your own copy to use and treasure forever!

Please contact me at either : hiltonpu@fedsure.co.za . . . or P O Box 371, Noordhoek, 7975, South Africa Many thanks!

I am looking for a copy. Can anyone help? Harriet

I get antsy when Native American themes and stories appear in children's books. Too often they reek of cultural misappropriation.

But this beautiful book--gorgeous watercolor backgrounds to the Northwest Native American-style imagery--feels respectful, and does a great telling of a favorite Tlingit Haida tale of how light came into the world.

The illustration of the morphing of the Sky Chief's spoiled grandson back into Raven is particularly effective.And when Raven fills the sky with the sun in his beak, it's very easy to buy into this story as a valid creation myth.

I've now bought three copies of this book for various pre-schoolers I know, and all my grown-up friensd who've seen this book have fallen in love with it, too. This is a definite winner, bound to become as classic in its own way as Robert McCloskey's ``Blueberries for Sal.''

The children in my Pre-K class cannot get enough of this book. The magic of the illustrations and the text has them mesmerized. Many times, when we have finished reading the story, they want to here it again!

This is a wonderful book! My daughter and I really enjoyed the way that this tale was re-told and the illustrations were beautiful!

As others have noted, a well researched and well organized guide. There's now a competing publication endorsed by Stephen Ambrose, whose book "Undaunted Courage" sparked renewed national interest in Lewis and Clark. After browsing that one, published by Montana Magazine in a magazine format, I can report that 1) it has advertising, and 2) it omits details found in Julie Fanselow's book. Stick with Julie.

I do hope she has an updated edition in the works for the upcoming Lewis and Clark bicentennial. A few points of information need to be added or changed to keep pace with developments. For instance: starting in 2003, access to the Lolo Motorway, the L&C route from Montana to Idaho, will be by permit only.

A friend and I did the L&C trail last summer. We took this guide and some others. This was *by far* the best guide. We literally would not have been able to find some sites without it. We came to trust its advice so much that we consistently asked each other what "Julie" had to say about various parks, campsites, etc. I can't imagine doing the trail without this book.

After reading the reviews I went ahead and ordered the book, I look forward to its arrival because I am planning my honeymoon and would like to go visit some Lewis and Clark sites. I am hoping that this will help me plan.

Fantastic Book! Sherry Simpson's brilliant style and insight mark her as one of the best writers of our time. This book is sure to become a classic that will be read and studied for generations to come. You will enjoy this book on many, many levels. If you don't own a copy of "The Way Winter Comes", buy it now. You won't be disappointed!

Calling this book nature writing, or Alaska writing, or wilderness writing is to box it into a space that is too small. This is just damn GOOD writing by someone who knows how to take the reader places without heavy-handedness. In many ways, I find Simpson's essay to be better than the oft-mentioned names like McPhee, Muir, Gutkind, etc.

Simpson takes the reader on a literary tour of Alaska. From her upbringing here in Juneau to her excursions in the deep Arctic, we are given an open window to peer into some of the mysteries of the many faces of Alaska. Her journalistic past affords her some true objectivity in dealing with controversial topics like wolf trapping.

This was a great, handy book to have while visiting southern California. I have been on two of the tours so far. Both were accurate and fun. I am origianally from California, but live in Dallas now. This was a nice way to refresh my memory of the area, and find out new places to see. It is a must have if you are planning to spend some time in the southern California area.

You will have fun reading this handy little book even if you don't go on the variety of tours it has to offer. The concise, often humorous, descriptions are full of little known facts on people and places all over L.A. There are museums, parks, landmarks, cemetaries and unique attractions I never knew existed and it was a great experience seeing them for the first time. Most of them were FREE! Pocket Guide to L.A. is not your typical Hollywood guide book. It is a entertaining and educational activity book that covers a wide range of interesting places to visit again and again. It would make a great gift.

What a great Book! This is the best guide to L.A. that I have seen. Not only does it contain over one hundred of the best attractions, but it also has five self-guided tours around the greater Los Angeles area.

Four of the tours stop at famous landmarks and the homes of the biggest superstars in Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Brentwood and Pacific Palisades. Celebrity biographies are provided for more then 60 of the greatest stars of today and yesteryear. Some of my favorites include Brad Pitt, John Travolta, Harrison Ford, Steven Spielberg, Dustin Hoffman. Marilyn Monroe, Lucille Ball, and Elvis Presley.

The final tour is a walking tour exploring downtown Los Angeles. This tour unveils the various cultures, historical facts and gives you a feel for the future of the city of Los Angeles. Featured are water parks, beautiful gardens, mini-museums, three different ethnic communities, architectural feats, and much more.

Not only does the book have very accurate driving directions, but it contains GPS coordinates for those who like to navigate with GPS. Additionally, it contains a very innovative GPS Adventure Game which is a type of cross word puzzle where you are given GPS coordinates and clues. You travel to each GPS coordinate, read the clue and determine the answers. The game's route follows pretty close to the route of Adventure Tour I, so you can play the game at the same time that you go on the tour. For example, one clue is the tomb inscription, "She did it the hard way". The GPS coordinates take you to Forest Lawn Memorial Park to Bette Davis' tomb. Another clue is "A winged lady holding an electron", and you are guided to GPS coordinates at The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences where you see a thirty foot Emmy (the answer) and many more busts of the greatest television stars.

The book was well planned and is very convenient. I highly recommend the "Pocket Guide to the Best of Los Angeles" to everyone.

This book is written by an academic. I don't necessarily mean this in a negative sense. The author has done a very thorough research on the topic and presented his findings. The effect is a book that can be called a comprehensive treatment as far as it can be done given that the practictioners are disappearing fast.
The downside is that it can send you to sleep as the author systematically compares how the navigational techniques are practiced in the various island groups.

The strength of the book is not only its thoroughness but also the fact that the author is a skilled sailor who has gone on trips using these techniques. This makes the material so much more authentic, because the reader can relate how effective these skills are and yet how much practice they require.

The author provides commentary on many practices and relates them to our modern day knowledge. An example was their ability to recognize the impact of sub surface currents, something that is today a rather specialist piece of knowledge not available to the everyday sailor.

Incredible book - how did people get to Hawaii, Tonga, and other pacific islands that are thousands of miles apart? Did they get lost? Did they get blown there by storms? Nooooooo - they could navigate over open ocean for thousands of miles by using art passed down from generation to generation. This book tells you how.

David Lewis has zig-zaged the Pacific in modern yachts and traditional canoes. His broad experience and long resarch, using his own and many schoolars data, has made this a good analysis and documentation of the extremly impressing and interesting phenomenon of ancient and present voyaging in the Pacific. Others, specially anthropologists fieldworking in the Central Carolines of Micronesia, had written about the presently used Micronesian voyaging system, others less throughly about the forgotten polynesian,but Lewis mangage to give a synthesis of the technologies and some of the social aspects of traditional voyaging in the Pacific

This is a good hiking book to have along with the Robinson California hiking bibles. Jerry Schad is an experienced hiker who has done all the hikes described within the text. He has a nice little ranking system for each journey, from ranges from one star for easy treks and 4 stars for the strenuous ones. I do think his ranking system is just a trifle soft. Some of the hikes that get 4 stars aren't really that difficult, nor do they have exceptional elevation gains. But this is a minor criticism.

The maps are OK, nothing exceptional, but he does adequately describe how to drive to each trailhead. As all hikers know, this can make or break a hike, especially ones you've never before attempted. Schad does a good job in getting you to the trailhead with the least amount of hassle. There is an over-abundance of hikes in the Santa Monica and Santa Ana mountains and not a particular emphasis on the better hiking adventures in the San Bernardino wilderness areas. His descriptions of two classic Southern California hikes are both flawed, however: the venerable San Gorgonio is described only from the Vivian Creek trailhead and (a more egregious omission)- the Mt. Baldy hike is described only from the ski lift way. The other approaches to Baldy are much superior, but are omited. This is a curious error.

All in all, a good book and one which every hiker in the L.A. area should own.

Jerry Schad is the author of numerous outdoor recreation guides among which are his popular 'Afoot and Afield' books for Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego counties. This book includes favorite hikes from all three of the previous guides, and a few others from Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

What makes Schad's guides so terrific are the rating system he gives each hike (1-5 stars, based on difficulty) and the nice sketch maps he provides. Tables at the end of the book help one to easily locate a trails with varied physical features. Finally, like all Wilderness Press guides, this one is full of natural history and a fun read.

If this book can be faulted at all, it is that it draws too much material from Schad's previous works. Relatively little space is devoted to the San Bernardino and San Jacinto ranges (5 hikes and 3 hikes respectively). Both of these areas deserve more detailed coverage. Perhaps Schad can be induced to write another book. Until then, this guide gives an excellent survey of some of the best hiking Southern California has to offer.

I've test-hiked 7 or 8 of Jerry's hikes. His descriptions and directions are quite accurate. Now I've only got 90-something left to go!

I grew up in SoCal, and found it easy to get into a rut, always hiking in the same places, only during the summer. This book provides interesting hikes in the coastal foothills for the spring and autumn, hikes in the desert for the winter, and mountain hikes for the summer.

His descriptions of the hikes allow the reader to match their adventure to their level of physical fitness. He includes enough information to determine how much water should be carried and even whether to bring the point-n-shoot camera or the 35mm SLR with a macro lens for wildflowers.

Whether you're new to the area and want a few good hikes, or a long-time native looking to break out of a rut, this book is for you. (I even find it enjoyable armchair reading, the fantasies about being on the trail are fun!)

Seattle is set in a very diverse geographical region. This diversity provides for ample breathtakingly beautiful and lush photographs of the metropolitan area. Lakes, mountains, trees, islands, bays, rivers - this area has it all and is cleverly photographed in this Robert Cameron book.
The book is fairly up to date although citizens or connosieurs of Seattle may notice the dated-ness of the book by the conspicuous absense of some new construction in the downtown area and the changing condition of other areas of the city. If you like pictorials, this is a great one to own and probably one of the best of the Seattle Metropolitan Area. I highly recommend it.

THIS BOOK IS A KNOCKOUT, IT'S 12 X 14, THE PICTURES INSIDE, MOST OF THEM ARE THE SAME SIZE AND ARE SO CLEAR IT LOOKS LIKE YOU ARE THERE, YOU LOOK AT SEATTLE FROM ALL ANGLES AND TACOMA, YOU CAN MAKE OUT PEOPLE IN THE BUILDINGS, THERE ARE OLD PICTURES FROM THE 1920's RIGHT NEXT TO TODAYS PICTURES, THE BOOK TELLS YOU WHERE AND WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING AT, YOU CAN READ SIGNS IN THESES PICTURES, IT SHOWS HOW CLEAN THE SEATTLE AND THE PUGET SOUND IS, IF YOU LIVE THERE THIS BOOK IS A MUST, FOR IT WILL SHOW YOU AREAS YOU MAY HAVE NEVER SEEN, FOR THERE IS SO MUCH TO SEE, AND TO THE REST OF THE WORLD, THIS BOOK THIS IS THE PERFECT TRAVEL GUIDE FOR THE NORTHWEST, IT'S A 160 PAGES OF THE CITY, WATER, NAVEL SHIPS, FERRYS,AIR PORTS, AND MOUNTAINS, THERE IS JUST NO WAY TO PUT THESE GREAT PICTURES IN TO WORDS! "THANKS" ROBERT CAMERON

Stunning quality; if you've been there, you will easily be able to pick out your favorite spots, despite the distance. The captions are a little dry, but the pictures make this aesthetic book one of value.