Automobiles Books

Detroit, Mo-town, city of automobile and industry, vibrant or dying? This book of wonderful poetry written by Detroit poets during the early and late 20th century is alive with feeling and emotion both specific to this working-class town and yet also universal in its appeal to the humanity and emotion in all of us. Detroiters and former Detroiters will recognize the people and places in these poems with specificity. They will have been there and lived these emotions. But so too will have anyone who has lived in any community that has felt the excitement and the hurt of change, both local and in society as a whole.
This book collects the poetry of over 100 poets with an enormity of diverse backgrounds and voices yet all with the common bond of having been a Detroiter. They reflect this yet also reflect a broader bond that we all have in our common humanity. The poems are generally short and easy to read. Pick up the book, flip it open to any page and begin reading. You will feel the honesty and clarity with which the poets write and likely these poems will stir up some very realistic feelings that have been buried deep within you. This poetry will help you to see within the soul of a city and its people whose microcosm may represent us all.

This poetry compilation achieves its goal by capturing whatever it means to be "Detroit". I sometimes close myself in a room and read loudly poems from this book to the wall just to remember what it feels like to live in an area not built on doubletalk (I live in Washington DC now).

I could never speak to whether this book would appeal to somebody who doesn't understand Detroit's turbulent life over the 20th century. I would certainly tell anybody who asked that they should at least flip through this book every so often because it tells the story of America, its pinnacles of glory and how they can get ripped right out from underneath without a moment's notice.

The poetry in 'Abandon Automobile' is beautifully visceral. There are no "thou"s or sappy sonnets about flowers in this book. It may seem simple and plain to people more accustomed to coffeeshop poetry, but it isn't once you let the words meld together. Much like Detroit is defined by what many people have done as a collective rather than what any particular individuals have done, these words together form Detroit. The language is practical, impassioned, riddled with strife and hope and somehow happiness. It has stories told through the grit of abandoned sidewalks that were once the busiest in the world, but now only support a couple averted-eye strangers passing one another.

Everyone I know who understands Detroit lives with an uneasy love / hate for it. It is the love of the automobile mixed with an utter disdain for what it has done to destroy its own city. This poetry captures that. The poems throw up an impassioned defense for all Detroit has quietly contributed to society and reveals a deep rooted frustration over its potential in a world that no longer cares about it.

Anyway - even if you've never found yourself saying 'Detroit' over and over until its images were wiped away and it settled deep in your throat as an entirely new and strange word, read this poetry. Some are better than most, but you'll find the really good ones and you'll find Detroit.

I love love love this book! It has a car theme that my little guy loved, the pictures are soft and very detailed.the book tells a story in pictures of a little boy his mom and dog in a little red car out driving. Each page gives a letter of the alphabet and a drawing like a is ambulance. but the book can be read many ways, at first it is a great picture book with lots to look at, you can also have the child find the item in the picture(or the boy in the red car), for instance on one page there are multiple police cars a child can find, or motorcyles, when they get older you can reinforce letter recognition and letter sounds. at the end of the story the boy and his mom go home to daddy and a baby. buy this book, you will be able to read it differently for years!

My two-year old loves this book! Though not identified as such, this book features a family on a drive through San Francisco. It features many different modes of transportation including garbage trucks, limousines, buses, and more. Readers can identify landmarks such as the Transamerica Pyramid, Golden Gate Bridge, Chinatown, and many more. Easy to read over and over and over...

This books is really quite nice. It's got a lot of great ads in from all the american marques, and it provides a great trip down memory lane. It can be tough to reproduce ads in sizes other than their orignal, but the book does a great job of it...

This book is, without doubt, the best book I ever read

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I think list price is wrong.Or your price is wrong.

Now in an updated and expanded second edition, William Herow's America's Scenic Drives showcases all 200 officially designated scenic drives in four national scenic byway programs focusing on 220 featured drives. Byway programs comprises the very best travel routes drawn from four million miles of roads crisscrossing America. Included are detailed maps for each route with locations of campgrounds, picnic areas, national and state parks, pints of interest, hiking trails, recreation areas, national forests, vehicle limitations, travel seasons, lodging establishments, attractions, and recreational sites. America's Scenic Drives is an invaluable, highly recommended trip planing guide with information on more than 300 officially designed byways in state programs.

Over the course of modern Formula One racing since 1950, there have been two publicly successful and one publicly unsuccessful U.S. Grand Prix racer, but did you know that there are more than 140 American men and one woman who have challenged in Grand Prix since 1906? Tim Considine spent seven years of his life in research for this volume, which includes biographies of many of the racers, period photos by some of the top photographers, including Pete Biro, Bernard Cahier and Dave Friedman, and a time line history of U.S. drivers, teams and tracks in Grand Prix. As a reference alone, this book is worth having in anyone's GP collection, but as a read, it's a "can't put it down" book. You're going to love this.

Especially for European fans like myself, who don't know the history of American grand prix drivers and cars, this is an execelent book. I've just loved it. Five stars, at least.

Having lived and participated in the sports car racing era of the 50's and 60's I can only say that this book portrays it as it was. There was a charmingly naive blend of people and machinery in an era when a handshake was a bond. These photos and the text are very accurate, and why not? Denise McLuggage was there racing, Tom Burnside was there photographing. I was a licensed flagman for the SCCA and stood next to Tom Burnside at many a track in the Northeast . His love and passion for the sport then translates beautifully in his work despite the passage of many years. I recommend this work to anyone who was there or wished they had been - it is worth it. The photos are a treasure for all car enthusiasts. As you page through you can almost smell the the Castrol Racing Oil, hear the beat of the engines small and large and sense your adrenalin rising

American Racing is a truly nostalgic book. It covers a wide selection of races on road and airport tracks between 1954 and 1968. If you feel a slight tickling down your spine, when you hear words like 'Jaguar D-Type' or 'Ferrari 250 Testarossa', 'Porsche 550 Spyder' or 'Cobra' then this book is for you. Here they are all together with Allards, Austin Healeys, early Chevy Corvettes, Mercedes 300 SLs, OSCAs, up to the Shelby Cobras, Lolas and Chaparrals. If you get sort of jumpy feelings when you hear 'Nassau Speed week', 'Grand Prix of Cuba' (YES! 1957, 58 and 1960) or 'Sebring 12 Hours' by all means get this book! American Racing is a picture book for all who cherish memories of racing cars which still looked like automobiles and not like motorized advertisement posts. The photographs of Tom Burnside are all in B/W. This is the sole reason why I gave only a rating of 9. I had preferred at least a short section with selected color photographs. But - come to think of it - maybe this book had lost its special appeal... Ok - let's make a 10 out of the 9, then! Back to the pictures: Many of them are simply fantastic, you can almost smell the mix of burned tires and Castrol 'R'. Not only are there hundreds of action photographs out on the track. You also find a lot of snapshots of the dramatic action in the pits during a race, contrasting with pictures of the mechanics preparing the cars in the tranquility of a garage. There are a few shots showing the social side of racing: A friendly chat between drivers between two races, relaxation beside the swimming pool of the hotel, the distinguished atmosphere of the official banquet. In short, you (literally) get the whole picture of the racing scene, when autombile racing was still mainly a sport. Imagine a racing car today with only a few decorative racing stripes and at the most two or three palm size bumper stickers! Here they are, page for page - automobile racing at its best! The texts - incidentally in English, German and French! - are concise and informative. They are written by Denise McCluggage, a journalist with a fine sense for writing exactly not too much and not too less. She gives you all the needed information, and at the same time she transmits the feeling of the atmosphere of the scene. By the way: She was also one of the most gifted lady amateur race drivers who mastered also some of the 'big bangers' of the time! It is simply wonderful to see such a book in print, reliving sweet memories of times when visitors of a race simply could walk into the paddock and talk to the heroes of the day: From Briggs Cunningham to Carroll Shelby, from Bob Bondurant to Jim Hall, from Stirling Moss to John Surtees... Here they are all together, doing their thing and bringing us the thrill of automobile racing at its best.

If you'd like to take any of several self-guided automobile tours of Los Angeles and nearby areas, Laura Massino Smith's books are excellent. Each tour book has clear directions and easy-to-read maps, lots of fascinating notes and information, plus photos of what to look for. I've lived in LA for over twenty-five years, and Smith's books have surprised me with things I'd never seen or hadn't noticed. There are three of her books in my glove compartment so far (Hollywood, Silverlake, and Hancock Park/Miracle Mile) and I'll be getting the rest as well.

These are great guides to view all the architectural gems in my neighborhood and surrounding areas. Highly recommended for locals or people who visit Los Angeles often. You wouldn't think there are so many historical houses and buildings to see in this town, but Laura Massino Smith has compiled them into these handy books with great photos as well.

Virginia Walters is a teacher at my daughters' elementary school, Condit, in Bellaire, Texas. She is a kind and loving teacher that all children fondly remember. Her first book is a winner with my kids. Every parent who has tired of hearing that dreaded phrase, "Are we there yet?" will benefit from it.

Our three year old son just loves this book. An entertaining yet educational book focusing on spacial relationships, a detailed narrative, and mathematical skills. The text is a rhyming, yet unusual narrative. The book includes a large map in the front and a smaller map with each section as the father and son travel to Grandma's house. Each section ends with "We have XX more miles to go" declining from 100 to 10 in steps of 10. Highly recommended.

This book chronicles all models produced from about 1986 to 2006, with the greatest focus on the hand crafted V-series cars of 1990-2000 (Virage and all its decedents). In many ways the book shows how the company has made the transition from a ultra-low volume maker of coach built cars into a maker of expensive semi-mass produced sports cars (like an English Ferrari). Personally I have mixed feelings about this transformation, but the book does a magnificent job paying homage to both eras.

Each chapter details one model, or one special run of cars. In some cases the "run" describes production quantities in single digits...in a few cases it even represents a single unique car. The book itself contains amazing photographers, and was obviously produced with great attention to detail and love of the cars/company.

One funny aspect of the book... Many places in the text "well known far east customer" is mentioned, but his name is never actually given. This is obviously the Sultan of Brunei. It is well known he was a major Aston Martin customer during this period, and commissioned many of the highly custom cars in the book. Since these cars are locked far away, this book is the only way to experience these works of art.

I only have one minor complaint. I really wish they included more photos inside of the Newport-Pagnell factory itself. Since this book chronicles the last chapter of hand-made cars, it would have been nice to see more details of this lost art.

Worth every penny.

Very comprehensive of the modern cars. Including many, many one off and unique Astons AND Lagondas also.
An incredible resource.
Hence my "Must Buy" title as above.