Road Trip Books

I'm in awe of Priscilla Rhodes's ability to describe not only the sights, sounds and adventures she and husband Ken experienced as they traveled America, but also the refreshing spontaneity and honesty of her emotions and reactions to each place and person along the path. Her accounting of sidetrips and highlights is delightful: From museums, landmark buildings and historical state capitols to deep dark fir forests, spectacularly colored mesas, sparkling, snowy mountains and brilliant sunsets. Who can forget the candy-colored lady in the laundry room or the seven-year-old boy who survived an accidental trip over Horsehoe Falls? The book is a joy ride with moments of surprise and even heart-gripping suspense (such as that at the Gates of the Mountains at Helena). Reading the Discover America Diaries is like happily stealing away in Priscilla's pocket for the entire length of the journey, through all its hills and valleys. Thank you, Priscill Rhodes, for an unexpectedly delightful trip.

Back in the 1980s, there was an Albert Brooks movie about a couple of Yuppies who ditched the high-paced rat race, cashed in their nest egg, bought an RV and decided to discover America and themselves through a year-long road trip. They got as far as Las Vegas where the wife gambled away all their money. Later on, they ended up in some boring town with low-grade jobs. Nobody liked the ending.

A much happier ending has befallen Priscilla Rhodes and her husband Ken. Having quit their jobs in 1998 they bought a red truck and an attached trailer and set out for a few years of nomadic existence to discover the country. The result was a website devoted to postcards from the road called www.postcardsfrom.com which later led to this book. The couple actually sent e-mail postcards to people on their subscription list. The postcards became popular, as did the thumbnail sketches of the places they visited. After USA Today and The Christian Science Monitor lauded the website, their subscription base skyrocketed. Eventually this book evolved from their first trip: one that covered the northern route.

The diaries switch back and forth between personal accounts of their life on the road (and before), musings about society and deft descriptions of the monuments, towns, events and byways they encounter. Luckily for the reader, most of the personal accounts are very funny, and the descriptions are right on the money. Priscilla writes the diaries and the postcards while Ken takes the photographs and designs and emails the cards.

It seems Priscilla has the perfect husband. Not only can he handle a truck with a trailer weaving behind it (I personally avoid those things like the plague when I see them on the highway) he can also photograph,create a website, do professional book layout and fashion a very handsome book without benefit of high-price book designers.

So whether they are shivering in the cold, waiting for the sun to rise on Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park, baking in the heat when caught in Chicago traffic in their truck (which apparently is not air-conditioned) or climbing over buffalo dung in the Badlands, you will enjoy their journey and learn a lot about America, trailer parks, state capitols and various monuments. A very enjoyable read.

I'm guessing that there are many Americans who would enjoy and long for a trip to every state. Most of us will never do it in which case, it's fun to read about another's adventure. Priscilla Rhodes' book, Discover America Diaries, Vol. 1, is an armchair traveler's delight. Not only is the book fun to read, but it provides a real education about what this country holds. It is a uniquely personal account, as it should be, but it also mirrors the ups and downs of all our lives and especially I would think, the lives of anyone who takes to the road in search of education, adventure and themselves. If you do decide to hit the road, read this book first. It will give you hope that you can have a great time even if, like Priscilla and her husband, you know absolutely nothing about what you are about to do.

Hop in the passenger seat and bounce along the open road with Priscilla and Ken as they cover 15 states in a 30-foot RV. This personal journal proves to be a descriptive, easy-to-read travelogue that takes the reader across America from sea to shining sea. If you live in one of the states, have visited these states or long to see the beauty of the American countryside this is sure to inspire a sense of wanderlust. The authors venture off the tourist trap route and focus more on the obscure claims to fame of each of the states they visit. A unique look at each of the state capitals also makes this a great classroom supplement for U.S. Geography or History classes. For anyone who loves road trips, this travel essay is sure to bring about stories of "remember when." Review by JoAnna Carey, Rat Race Relaxer: Your Potential & The Maze of Life

Sinclair Lewis's FRESH AIR, published in 1919, is sheer, chuckling delight. It offers no great insights into psyches or interpersonal relations. Read it rather as a straightforward magazine serial pot boiler romance of frontier boy and car mechanic (Milt Daggett) pursuing a sentimental girl (Claire Boltwood) worth an impressive $5,000 around 1916. The girl, a high living Brooklynite, is driving her ailing workaholic father in a heavy Gomez-Dep roadster long day after weary day across northern plains and mountains towards a vacation with cousins in Seattle. She wonders whether she can ultimately avoid marrying Jeff Saxton, a notably older beau back in sophisticated New York.

Milt complicates things by falling in love with Claire after pulling her car out of a Minnesota mud hole created by a German hick to extort money from stranded motorists. Milt almost instantly decides to drive in his modest Teal "tin beetle" or "bug" with or near Claire and her father all the way to Seattle. And so it goes, with Claire wondering if she can (or should) civilize the manly Milt up to the level of suave and prosperous Jeff or whether that is too, too patronizing. Should she, alternatively, simply sweep off to Alaska with Milt -- heeding the call of the wild? Were Jane and Tarzan in the back of Sinclair Lewis's mind? For Edgar Rice Burroughs had created them only seven years earlier in 1912. No, the story takes another twist. Read the book and discover what this novel is said to be "prelude and curtain raiser" to.

FRESH AIR can also be read just for its sweaty heft as a part of midwestern and western America not long before the nation declared war on the Kaiser. On the drive through Minnesota, North Dakota, etc. to Washington state, roads are rarely paved. Gravel is luxury. Dust is daily. Mud is just around the bend. Tires are thin and frequently burst or are punctured. Steep slopes demand drivers with braking and gear shifting skills. And don't forget low spots covered by running water.

In every town where the Boltwoods overnight, they routinely drive their Gomez-Dep (a make apparently invented by Sinclair Lewis) into a sure-to-be-there full service garage for the night. These and other cross country garages often display a sign "Free Air," which must have been a reassuring come-on in the early days of cross-continental motoring.

The author, just one year before his first masterpiece, MAIN STREET, convincingly presents his personally experienced North American driving world from an expert mechanic's point of view: an automobile-crazed country with its starters, carburetors, rumble seats, dubiously effective head lamps, oil leaks, hitchhikers, fleabag hotels, country stores, a haunted house and country people who speak German and at first seem gruff but then are seen by sophisticated Easterner Claire Boltwood to have hearts of gold. As does her new suitor, Milt Daggett. It is an all-American world where even auto mechanics are romantic and knightly.

Boys and girls should read FRESH AIR a year or so before they tackle TOM SAWYER and HUCKLEBERRY FINN. One leads to the others.

-OOO-

I really enjoyed this book immensely and agree with the previous reviewer. It gives a descriptive account of the trials and tribulations of traveling westward in a car during the early 1900's.

Reads as a social/class commentary, a Zane Gray western, with some romance added.

Corny in some ways, however, I thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend it to other Sinclair Lewis fans.

One of my favorite books. I was lucky to get a copy (original edition) from the New York Public Library. Have read all his well-known books, but might like this best. His usual themes of Americana, social climbing, etc. But this is a "road" book and a very innocent love story - wonderful book by one of the best American writers. I'm surprised it's in print since it's such a minor title of his.

Apparently Lewis didn't become disillusioned and embittered until after 1919, when this absolutely delightful book was published. We have an original copy that my mom got from a library sale or something. She loved it, I loved it, which is no suprise because I am a sucker for sweet old novels, but the most ringing endorsement it that my impossible-to-please dad loved it. In fact, he was the one who made me read it.

There really isn't a lot of substance to this book - it's mostly fluff. (There's some social commentary in the later parts of the book, when they're in Seattle, but I try to ignore it.) But it's grade-A, high-quality fluff we're talking about here. Claire Boltwood's transformation from a Brooklyn snob to a real woman is highly believable, and Milt Daggett is one of the sweetest, most wholesome men ever created. Set against the well-painted backdrop of the American West, the story shifts from amusing to heartwarming to bittersweet and back again flawlessly.

Just a good, simple love-story, unique and well-written. I would recommend this book to anyone just looking for a good read.

that I am looking for her next book :)....what a great (yet) readable book !

When I opened 'Kiss the Sunset Pig' I was expecting a travel book, which it is ... and a great one at that. What I wasn't expecting was how much it would touch my soul. I sat, riveted, as I took a journey not only around the world, but across thoughts, hopes, dreams. Anyone who's ever questioned whether, with the whole world to choose from, they're living their lives in the best place or whether they've filled their lives to the very best of their ability, will find a resonating spirit in this book.
As Laurie Gough makes her way from Canada and across America she hopes not only to settle happily in California, but to find the coastal cave that she lived in for six nights, years ago. But the search is not so much for the cave itself, as for the more free-spirited (she believes) girl that lived there. As she drives, she recalls previous travels in the Greek islands, the Yukon, Jamaica, Sumatra, and Seoul, to name a few. These tales can't fail to inspire. Her bravery alone, traveling solo through often uncomfortable, and sometimes dangerous, situations is humbling to say the least. But it's this bravery she feels has been lost and she hopes to rekindle by finding her cave.
Several times the author seemed to wander into places I thought only existed in my daydreams. Some were so uncanny they made me gasp. Since childhood I have wanted a glass-walled bedroom perched on the top of a house, entirely surrounded by trees. I clapped my hands in delighted envy when the author set up home in just such a room ... and in a Californian Redwood forest at that. These instances were some of the most poignant for me - the fact that daydreams can so easily be reality if you go out and make them so ... that really hit home.
The travel stories are touching, humourous, enchanting, and filled with travel's usual mix of discomfort, frustration, alarm, and achingly beautiful encounters. All are told with the author's clear natural gift for portraying the lightness and the depth in every situation.
So if the idea of sleeping in a coastal cave, inside a Californian Redwood, on a Mediterranean beach, or on the banks of the remote Yukon river lights something intangible inside, I wholeheartedly recommend you read 'Kiss the Sunset Pig' and let inspiration rain over you.

If you enjoyed Kite Strings of the Southern Cross, or even if you were not lucky enough to read it, Laurie Gough's second book offers the same magical combination of beautiful, descriptive travel writing and soul-searching that never comes across as self-involved or forced. Starting in Canada, Gough takes the reader along on her road trip to rediscover a special cave she once stayed in along the California coast - and how she has evolved since that memorable sojourn. Interspersed throughout the narrative are chapters on some of Gough's other international adventures to such exotic locales as Sumatra and Seoul, South Korea (a place that comes across as utterly unappealing).

Much of the beauty in Gough's writing comes not just from her memorable descriptions of the people, places, and things she encounters and learns from (especially those harrowing Indonesian bus and ferry rides and Marcia, her struggling car), but also from her brutal honesty about some of the low points she struggled through along the way. By the end of the book, the reader truly roots for Gough to find her cave so the journey can go full-circle.

Despite an unexpected outcome, Gough manages to discover the meaning and convey the depth of her experience in a way that never seems heavy-handed or cliched. This is a beautiful and inspiring piece of travel writing that offers many riches for fellow travelers, those who enjoy strong writing, and anyone who has ever considered his or her place and purpose in the universe.

Laurie Gough is an intrepid traveller with a youthful exuberance for adventure. I realize, though, that no matter what one's age, some people are born with wanderlust and have a need to travel the world. The interesting thing is, travellers always return home. That's what Gough does. She's been to thirty countries, hitchhiking thousands of miles by herself though fourteen of them. But she always returns to her hometown of Guelph, Ontario in Canada.

At the beginning of Kiss the Sunset Pig, Gough sets off for California from Guelph in a "blue, beat-up mini Ford Bronco" she calls Marcia. To help with driving and expenses, she picks up a travelling companion named Debbie, whom she has met through an ad and, before the trip begins, has only spoken to on the phone. Debbie gets dropped off in St. Louis, Missouri, at the home of a boyfriend she has never met face to face.

"Sometimes I think I'm still looking for an axis," Gough writes early on in her journey. After reading her book, I think the axis may be the wanderlust. It's who she is. For a person with wanderlust, there is no perfect place to live. A place may seem ideal, for a time, but really it's just a base at which to prepare oneself for the next adventure.

Reading about her encounters with strange and wonderful people is frightening at times (for the reader and for her), but I realize travelling with a companion or in a group, as I usually do, one is not open to the same exciting possibilities. Travelling solo, Gough finds herself talking to strangers more readily as she's more open and more herself. "That's the thing about travelling: it's like peeling away a layer of yourself, exposing yourself to the world so it can expose itself to you".

The structure of the book is an interesting one that works extremely well. (She did the same in her first book, Kite Strings of the Southern Cross, which I highly recommend.) Rather than write a book of travel stories in chronological order, Gough reflects on previous journeys as she drives across the United States in a car that needs lots of garage visits along the way.

One of those reflections is the Greek island of Naxos. There Gough created a temporary home under a small bamboo wind shelter on the beach. Her backpack went missing for a time and to ease her panic, she looked at the "dependable milky rock" of the moon. Gough realized things like that didn't matter "in the great scheme of the universe" (she had her passport and money), and I realize too, as a traveller, one needs to practice non-attachment. Gough describes Greece beautifully as a "land where myth and reality swirl around each other in a luminous haze." Yet she needed to move on, "to see the rest of the world."

One summer, Gough hitchhiked to the Yukon, 3,000 miles from Guelph. She says hitchhiking is "always a surprise study of human beings." Her travelling companion Kevin told her of his own world adventures. His advice was "You have no idea what's in store for you, but if you let yourself go along with the flow of the unknown and accept whatever happens, things seem to work out".

The "exotic detours" of which Gough writes don't all have happy endings. Her teaching job in Kashechewan in Canada's sub-Arctic ended after only three months with Gough defeated and exhausted by the chaos of a third-grade class. A trip to Jamaica with her sister ended quickly, as Gough likes to stay with locals while her sister prefers fancy hotels.

Gough is full of questions about where she belongs. Those questions don't at all detract from the book; they help us relate. After all, travel is about looking for oneself, and as travel-book readers, we get to reflect on similar questions.

On her trip to California, Gough plays Joni Mitchell's "California" that includes the phrase "kiss the sunset pig." She carries a tattered notebook called "Cave Journal" and would like to find that cave on the Pacific again, where she spent some time thirteen years previously. Along with her questions and her longing, Gough has a healthy sense of humour about her encounters along the way. She describes a town on the Great Plains called Grainfield as the "size of a bath mat."

At an earlier age, Gough described herself as "still on my way to everywhere." She has learned that travel can mean "hours, even days of despair, rain, heatwaves, snow, mosquitoes, late trains, no trains, followed by a single moment of dazzling elation. It was those single moments one tended to recall." Gough makes some realizations at the end of her California trip that I don't want to reveal here. But I would say, even though she is older and perhaps wiser, I still see her as on her way to everywhere.

Gough has married since the stories written about in her book and has a baby son. They divide their time between a farmhouse outside of Guelph, Ontario, and a Quebec village. Seventeen of her stories have been anthologised in various literary travel books, including Salon.com's Wanderlust: Real-Life Tales of Adventure and Romance and Sand in My Bra: Funny Women Write from the Road. She has written for the Los Angeles Times, the Globe and Mail, the National Post, Outpost, Canadian Geographic and numerous literary journals.

by Mary Ann Moore
for Story Circle Book Reviews
www.storycirclebookreviewsorg
reviewing books by, for, and about women

I ordered this book for a friend who is into microbrews and he was thrilled with the gift and excited to read about a man's traveling across the country to visit breweries.

It's a pretty good read about a man's odessy (he actually uses this word many times) to travel the United States, visiting various breweries and brewpubs. He sticks mainly to long established, family run breweries and some many of the chapters are often mini-family business histories. The large Coors/ Miller / Anheiser-Busch breweries are often referenced, but aren't visited. The author seems more interested in the history of each business than the product. The strength of the book is that Jaeger is a top-notch interviewer. It's no small feat in this book, when in many cases, he had already downed a few cold ones before the interview.

Surprisingly, there's little said about how the end product of each brewery tastes. The author also visits a bunch of brewpubs on the trip, but too many times, just breezes through the visit leaving the author to wonder what each place is really like. Anyone looking for any sort of insights as to how each different place on the map fits into its time and place is going to go away a bit unsatisfied.

Given the strength and weaknesses, I'd give it 3 1/2 stars so I'll round it up to four stars. Beer enthusiasts will enjoy it, but others may want to look elsewhere in the road trip genre.

I've recently gotten curious about the world of beer and brewing because of my boyfriend (and because I LOVE road trips!) so he got Red, White and Brew and I decided to read it. It is fascinating book about the interesting people and fun stories behind the people who make our beer around the country. Each chapter is totally different and you don't have to be a beer-head (or even a guy!) to enjoy it! I am definitely going to buy a copy for my dad and brother and my grandma too! I HIGHLY recommend!

As I make my way through Red, White and Brew I'm struck by how many fascinating stories there are to be told by those who make the beer we all love to drink. The strength of this book is in the history and perspectives of those personalities that Yaeger interviews along his journey through my neighbouring country to the south. (Yes, I am a Canadian who loves a good American microbrew.)

It's important to realize you won't learn much from this book about which beer you should be bringing home from the corner store; you will, however, uncover a ton of history about the brewery that made that beer, the people behind it, the business ups and downs, the process, and the blood sweat and tears that go into every bottle... uh, figuratively that is.

But the main takeaway for me was a new appreciation for how democratic beer can be. The Anheuser-Busch and MillerCoors of the world might prefer you to believe that beer must come from large breweries, but the people in Red White and Brew all started down their various paths with a very different idea in mind. Beer is what you make of it, and for someone with a passion, putting *good* beer in the fridge is something you can always do for yourself. It just takes one trip down to the local homebrew store, and you're on your way.

As I've already warned my girlfriend, the day may arrive where I come home with a few bags of malt and hops, and start putting into practice the ideas I now have percolating in my mind thanks to Red, White and Brew.

As one of the reviews suggested, we bought this book before we took our kids on a driving trip to Colorado. It really made the whole idea of a driving vacation fun and an adventure for our children. It's one of our favorite bedtime stories. Not only do the kids recite all the rhymes by heart but it brings back memories of our own wonderful vacation!

Like any good road trip, its the journey, not the destination and in "Road Trip" Roger Eschbacher and illustrator Thor Wickstrom give the reader a heck of a fun ride.

Written for young readers (yet more intelligent than Tom Green's movie of the same name), the beautifully illustrated "Road Trip" takes the reader through the many wonders and staples of a two day family car trip in a warm, humorous vein. Told in playful and amusing rhyme, the story is one most parents can identify with. Eschbacher takes us through the family sing-a-longs, games like license plate bingo and "I Spy with My Little Eye", jackalopes, postcards, tourist traps (be sure to check out "Paul Bunyun's Hive"!) and the inevitable squabbling with siblings which leads dad to threaten to "turn this car around right now".

Kids are sure to laugh at moments everyone can relate to like: "Gotta go, go, go. Can we stop, stop, stop? Dad says no, no, no. Will I pop, pop, pop?"

Thor Wickstrom's illustrations are rich and clever, providing a lot to look at as one reads the book again and again (and the kids will want to read this one again--and unlike some kids books, that's something YOU won't mind doing either!). The great detail he puts into each page adds some nice jokes that go along well with Eschbacher's amusing story.

It's a good read for kids who are either on, about to go on or just finished with their own first family road trip, while providing adults with a nostalgic look back to the days when they occupied the back seat and wondered "are we there yet?" It is sure to stir some memories.

"Road Trip" will be great fun for kids and highly nostalgic for parents. Roger Eschbacher's newest children's book, amusingly illustrated by Thor Wickstrom, is a fond reflection on the various details of a family car trip. While people obviously take less long car trips in favor of flying these days, it's hard to imagine anyone who couldn't relate warmly to this story. Parents will undoubtedly read it, as I did, in terms of a classic "Americana" road travel past, replete with corny roadside attractions and pre-chain marginal motels needing a look from Mom or Dad before paying for the night. Children will read or hear it in terms of their own car trip experience, perhaps confusedly noticing the absence of handheld games, DVD entertainment and iPods. Ultimately, I see this book as a look back at childhood driving vacations of most parents, but one which kids of today, the book's intended audience, can also relate to - and it sure doesn't hurt for kids to get a glimpse of America before the inundation of name brand chain motels, franchised fast food and portable electronics. "Road Trip" certainly provides that kind of experiential glimpse, and on their next car trip, I suspect most children will unconsciously be looking at the scenery instead of an LCD screen.

What a cute book. It brought me back to my childhood where my siblings (3) and I piled in our Country Squire station wagon with a dog and a Grandma (not to mention 2 parents) and drove cross country. A must read for all kids who can't imagine driving to the grocery store without a DVD playing, let alone to Canada! Very funny and wonderful drawings.

My family and I planned a trip last summer (2000) using this book. Our original plan was to spend most of our time in Santa Fe and Taos. After we read this book, however, we found several far more interesting trips that cost us about half what it would have cost in Santa Fe. Sure, we did a night in Santa Fe and Taos, but this book showed us the hidden spots in town that really were known only to locals. This book is so good that we even had a wonderful time in Farmington! Yes, that's right, Farmington. In fact, we plan to return their and once again enjoy the hidden restaurants and trading posts in which we found some of the most unique indian jewelry ever (and at about 1/3 of Santa Fe prices). Kudos to Ms. Moore! I just wish I could talk her into writing a similar book about Wisconsin.

This small but fact-filled book explores the richness of New Mexico beyond the Albuequerque-Santa Fe-Taos axis. The author really knows her stuff--giving equal weight to the Native American, Hispanic and Anglo influences that make New Mexico such an interesting state. It's in the car beside me every time I head there.

This is a nice book. It is well written.
The chapters are devided into areas of New Mexico. In each chapter there is a little bit about the history of that area, places to visit and more information about other nearby areas.

Having been to many of the areas that are discussed in this book, I found the description on target and the suggestions of places to visit good. I particularly liked the history of the area with directions to see some of the historical spots in each area.

Very nice. Well worth the money. This book will join me in the car as we go on our trips. It will join the RoadSide History of New Mexico as one of our invaluable, must keep in the car resources.

Enjoy.

A very entertaining read about two young dare-devils. Interesting,informative and the author's dry wit is reminiscent of Bill Bryson

An amusing collage of adventures through New Zealand and Australia.

Drive-About is an attention engaging travelogue by Jeff Green of a road trip he took that introduced him to the sights, wonders, and cultures of New Zealand and Australia. From "crazy kiwis"; to lush rainforests; to meeting Aboriginals and sampling their "witchetty grub" (the larval stage of a large moth) as a snack, Drive-About is colorful, adventurous, exotic, which is especially recommended for armchair travelers -- and would well serve as a trip-planning template for anyone contemplating vacations in Australia or New Zealand.

My friends and I just got back from Valerie Willis's "Retro Roadtrip" and it was a blast! The guide was easy and fun to read, and very comprehensive. It's a perfect travel guide for bored college students with nothing to do this summer. We can't wait to go on another one of these roadtrips and hopefully they are all as incredible as the "Retro Roadtrip". I'm really glad my friend purchased this book!

MTV Road Trips appears almost daunting in size, but it is well written and fun to read, particulalry the chapter by Dara Bramson.

Great insights and hints, and the book is fast reading...never a dull moment.

I highly recommend.

I bought the book with one trip in mind and ended up being more interested in the American Highways section. There is so much info in this part of the book and it was easy to read. Except for New Mexico I had never considered a visit to any of these places. I didn't know that Nashville had a Parthenon, or how Branson got started. I like the way everything is organized, loved the suggestions for music, loved the humor, too. All in all a good read with or without the trip.MTV Road Trips U.S.A. (MTV Guides)

Chandan Sengupta is a genius. The way he guides one through the investment jungle is unparalleled. With precise and carefully supported arguments on almost all aspects of investing, Sengupta does a magnificient job. I keep coming back again and again to this book whenever I am attracted/confused by the latest/new(and may I add dangerous?) investment fads which the investment community(and media) propagates. The words in this book at once dispel any doubts in my mind and put me back on "The Only Proven Road to Investment Success".

PS. I REALLY REALLY wish and REQUEST the author to PLEASE keep updating new revisions of this CLASSIC continuously with updates(warnings?) on new investment products - even within the index family e.g. emerging market indexes, Dimensional Fund Advisor-type enhanced index funds etc.

Most investment advice books are not well written. They are often clumsily organized and filled cover to cover with clunky, pedestrian prose. Nevertheless, you can acquire useful information from some of them, provided that they are half-way intelligible. I know that I have. A tiny few are written in a style that is almost as good as such writing gets. Chandan Sengupta's new book is as good as such writing gets. If you took all the investment advice books aimed at the general investor that have been published during the last twenty-five years and piled them on top of one another, with the worthless,the worse than worthless, and the least distinguished of them at the bottom and the better ones towards the top, Sengupta's would occupy the pinnacle. As an advice book written for an intelligent layman, "The Only Proven Road to Investment Success" is a masterpiece.

Well before Sengupta wrote his book, the results were in from the debate between active management (relying on tips, stockbrokers' advice, mutual fund managers who buy and sell on hunches and buzz and try to time the market and who charge you excessive fees for their dubious efforts) and passive investing (buying and holding very low-cost index funds which insure that you will earn a return on your investments virtually equivalent to that of the overall market). In every credible study the indexers have clearly won the day.

While some of the books on indexing are quite good, none can hold a candle to "The Only Road...." It is carefully organized, comprehensive, lucid, and very, very well written. While no book can be the be-all and the end-all, Sengupta includes nearly everything of importance in his cogent and elegant presentation. The book is not overburdened with graphs and tables, and these tools, when he does employ them, are always illuminating. (In fact, if you are not acquainted with the insidious dangers of active management, a couple of his tables surely will startle you.) Sengupta gives you precise, unambiguous instructions on how to realign your portfolio, after you have achieved an understanding of the superiority of passive investing. He even recommends specific mutual funds, rather than leave anything to chance.

No one has ever made a more persuasive case for indexing and against active management. If you are a confused investor, as I was just a couple of years ago, and are floundering around the market buying and selling without rhyme or reason, lacking a systematic approach to what you are doing, and dissatisfied with your portfolio's performance, Sengupta can set you straight. If there were only one book you could read for financial guidance, it would be impossible to find one any better than his.

Although I was already an indexer before I read Sengupta, I have never encountered a more accessible introduction to the only correct method of investing. What Sengupta has to say about retirement planning, however, is what especially impressed me . In Chapter 7, which could almost be considered a book within a book, he offers a stunningly original approach to dealing with retirement. This is exactly the type of analysis that I'd been seeking for a long time. All of the issues concerning retirement planning that I've been grappling with for so long find their resolution right here. He provides a framework within which you can rationally plan for a secure retirement. There is nothing remotely like this in any of the literature I've read. He does not shy away from problems that all the books and articles I've read leave unaddressed. For example, he even tells you which portion of your annual income in retirement should be taken out of the stock side of your portfolio and which portion out of bonds. I can't begin to describe all the brilliant insights contained in this chapter. It simply bowled me over.

Accompanying the book is a CD-ROM called "Guru," which is an extremely user-friendly program that enables you to do calculations on how much you need to save for retirement or for other specific purposes. It provides you with a wealth of pertinent information that I lack space to describe here. It's worth more than the price of the book.

If you read "The Only Road," absorb its rich contents, and act on the author's advice, you will achieve investment success. Of that, I have no doubt. If you have any fears or uncertainties concerning your retirement, you can't afford not to read his magnificent Chapter 7, where he breaks important new ground in the realm of retirement planning. I've never before published a book review. So impressed was I by Sengupta's book, I feel I owe a debt to the author. Moreover, I'm happy to alert those investors who are groping in the dark to the invaluable advice Sengupta has to offer you. Once you've read "The Only Road" and used Guru, you will abandon all the fake gurus you've been relying on and embrace the real thing.

I've tried it all ; dividend investing, momentum trading, market timing, scale trading, you name it!!! I only wish I'd started on this system long years ago...
But no matter. Fortunately, I still have time. This book will give you a proven, safe way to plan for retirement or other financial goals. It's full of common sense, and I highly recommend it if, like me, you're ready to stop losing money and get serious about your financial future.

Just received my copy and this book is so well researched and fun. It's a good timer's version of 1000 Places to See Before You Die. It tells you what the best annual parties are AND how to best experience them. A++!!

I was struggeling with what to do for a buddy's bachelor party. This book has it all. Where to go, what to bring and where the action is! I love this book.

The author has left no stone or empty cup unturned. The information about each party is laid out so nice in the book. What I like best is the author provided very specific information about each party. He included it all: how to get there, where to stay, and even what to bring. I am giving this book to my friends for Christmas so we can start planning our next road trip.

What a great book! I've been to a few of these festivals which were captured perfectly, but reading about some I've never heard of just makes me want to jump in a car with a few friends and experience more of America! And now I'll know HOW to as well! All I need is this book!

There is no better party book out there. it touches on festivities from almost every state throughout the entire year in an easy to read format.

buy one and Get Your Party Started!!!