West Virginia Books

What is being sold here, the 4th or 3rd edition? The above book description makes it sound like its the 4th edition, with a total of 117 pages, but the book cover shown is the 3rd edition (99 pages). This is very confusing.

EXCELLENT BOOK. THE VERY BEST FOR THE AMERICAN COLLECTOR. I NOW HAVE ALL (4) EDITIONS AND IT SURE HAS HELPED ME WITH MY COLLECTION. SIDNEY SELIGSON DID A FIND JOB AND I WANT TO COMMEND DARA FOR COMPLETING THE 4TH. EDITION. HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK TO ALL COLLECTORS.

This is the 4th edition of this book. I previously had purchased all three of the other editions. I am a major collector of Fostoria American Glassware, and this book tells it all. Very helpful in describing items. Highly recommend.....

I AM INTERESTED IN THIS BOOK AND YOUR ON-LINE CATALOG OFFERS SAMPLE PAGES. HOWEVER, THE PAGE CONTENTS YOU OFFER,PARTICULARY THE FRONT AND BACK PAGES, OFFER NO USEFUL INFORMATION. WILL YOU PLEASE REVISE THE SAMPLE CONTENT TO INCLUDE A PAGE WITH PHOTOGRAPHS? THAT REVISED INFORMATION WILL GIVE ME WHAT I NEED TO DECIDE ON A PURCHASE.

This is a must for serious collectors. It has saved hundreds of times the price. There are many glass pieces out there called "American Fostoria" that are not. The description and pictures make it much easier to tell the real items. The prices are quite accurate, but seem to be quite low on the really rare ones.

The book sounded good when I picked it up, but really, it is incredibly cliche and has an overused theme. Not worth reading

Gretchen Moran Laskas's The Miner's Daughter is a haunting story of poverty set in a Depression-era mining town in West Virginia. Willa Lowell and her large, loving family are trapped in a mining ghost town with no chance for work, meaning no food other than meager rations of soup beans and thin cornbread. Willa's mother has just completed a difficult, dangerous pregnancy, and as the eldest daughter, Willa is responsible for household chores and for watching the other children while her mother recovers.

The other mining families are just as hard-hit by the Depression, especially those who are foreign-born like the Olivettis, immigrants from Italy. Willa is sensitive and intelligent, and loves to read, so when a missionary comes offering a large library of pristine books, Willa devours them in-between chores, beginning with classics such as Little Women and working her way into more difficult poetry by Poe and Whitman.

When Willa's father and half-brother Ves leave to search for work at Hawk's Nest, Willa is left to hold down the precarious fort. As her mother's too weak to work, and the next-oldest is only ten years old, Willa must masquerade as a boy in order to pick in the fields; otherwise, the family would starve. She meets Johnny Settle, a boy around her own age who is smitten by her intelligence and courage, and the two begin a bashful courtship.

The remainder of the novel chronicles Roosevelt's projects as part of the New Deal, including a personal visit to the Riley Mines by Mrs. Roosevelt that has a huge impact on the Lowells' lives. The author includes brief notes as to actual New Deal settlements created by the Roosevelts, as well as several websites that give further information about real places and events in the story.

Miner's Daughter is written with great sensitivity towards the harsh realities of poverty, including poignant contrasts between the haves and the have-nots in a nearby town. This is a book that is just as pertinent today in a time of recession, inflation, and rising unemployment, and a book that speaks volumes on the warmth and love of family and the need for all of us to realize our dreams.

Pour yourself a cup of tea and spend an evening viewing a Depression-era mining camp through sixteen-year-old Willa Lowell's eyes. When the story opens, Willia worries about the health of her ailing, pregnant mother while dealing with the difficult task of feeding and caring for her family. A difficult childbirth threatens Mama's life, but Willa's strength and hard work helps this close-knit family pull through a hard winter. An African-American midwife, Granny Maylie, is the only person who comes to Mama's aid when the company doctor turns his back. When the mine closes, Daddy and older brother Ves go south to look for work while Willa helps Mama care for three younger siblings. The arrival of Miss Grace, a missionary, opens Willa's eyes to the beauty of books and education. Willa, along with her Italian-American friend Roselia, visit Miss Grace's home in a larger town. For the first time, Willa realizes not every family lives in poverty. Conversations with her older brother, Ves, add to her confusion as he opens her eyes to politics and the unions.

Willa disguises herself as a boy to pick vegetables as a farm worker. Her budding romance with her brother's friend, Johnny, is overshadowed when her father returns home, sick with a lung infection. Miss Grace brings a visitor, Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, to visit the Lowells. This visit results in an offer for the family to move to one of Roosevelt's New Deal towns, Arthurdale. Willa must choose between marrying Johnny, or staying with her family. Offers of education and opportunity make her choice even more difficult.

The quiet strength of this book lies in its vivid and detailed descriptions of life in the mining camp, and in its deftly-characterized picture of an affectionate and tightly-knit family. The relationship between Mama and Daddy is particularly noteworthy. Their real, but nondemonstrative, love for each other has a positive impact on each of their children. As Willa faces choices related to her own romance and future life, she draws on the lessons she has learned from watching her parents. Willa's younger sister, Seraphina, draws reader sympathy with her awkward and clumsy energy. I couldn't help hoping that there would be more books about this family, especially about Seraphina.

If this book were a photograph, it would focus tightly on one family, while letting the larger political and social picture blur slightly into the background. It's true that the novel delves only briefly into issues such as racial and ethnic prejudice, labor relations, union organization, and politics. But by focusing so tightly on one family, the reader learns much about the gritty day-to-day reality of life in a mining camp. It piques reader curiosity, and leaves you wanting to explore more about the larger issues raised in the story. A brief author's note at the end of the novel links readers to sources for further investigation.

Altogether, a quiet jewel in the world of historical fiction for young readers. If you enjoy the novels of Ruth WhiteSweet Creek Holler (A Sunburst Book), Kerry MaddenLouisiana's Song, Delia RayGhost Girl: A Blue Ridge Mountain Story, and others, you'll find a place on your bookshelf for this novel.

i thought this was an absolutley great book.historically accurate. i met Gretchen in person and thought that she was a very nice person, and she is thinging of doing a sequel to miners daughter.

Willa Lowell is a 16-year-old girl living the harsh realities of a Depression-era mining camp. She has always lived a hardscrabble existence with only one dress to wear, little food to eat, and a house so poorly insulated that the family stuffs their mattresses with newspaper to help keep warm in the winter. But things become more difficult when the mines shut down and her father and brother must look for work elsewhere, leaving Willa behind to care for a sickly mother and three younger siblings.

THE MINER'S DAUGHTER is a testament to the ordinary lives people build despite impossible circumstances. Most of the book deals with the emotional ties Willa has with her family and various members of her community, whether it's her best friend Roselia, an Italian immigrant, or Miss Grace, the missionary who introduces Willa to poetry. These relationships are somewhat idealized, the author only occasionally referring to the impact poverty has on human relationships. There is subtle discussion of families breaking up in search of work or under the pressure of too many mouths to feed. There is mention of the competitiveness and jealousy between neighbors all fighting to find work, but these conflicts don't enter much into the plot.

Instead, Willa and her family are lifted out of their poverty by Roosevelt's New Deal when they are chosen as one of the families for Arthurdale, an experimental community designed to alleviate rural poverty by forming planned communities based around skilled laborers. Willa's family qualifies because they are white, non-immigrant Protestants, and Willa's father has experience woodworking. This causes some tension in the mining camp, most of which is alleviated when one of Willa's letters is published in a newspaper drawing attention to the arbitrary standards by which her family is chosen:

Willa writes: "I worry about my friend Roselia, who couldn't come to Arthurdale because her mama and daddy were born in Italy. The government tells too many people 'no.' Washington D.C. demands too much from the people they are supposed to serve.... They judge and find wanting those like Granny Maylie, who cared for my mama when no company doctor would, only because of the color of her skin."

The book ends with Willa's family safely provided for and Willa looking to a bright future where she will use the power of words to make the world a better place. It adheres strictly to the middle-class values of hard work, education, virtue and cleanliness, leading to a miraculous transformation of impoverished lives. Little is said about the controversy surrounding the New Deal, or about the Mine Wars that occurred previously in West Virginia in an attempt to better the conditions of workers prior to winning the right to organize unions in 1933.

The strengths of THE MINER'S DAUGHTER lie in the specificity of its details. Readers unfamiliar with rural poverty may be surprised at the conditions in which Willa and her family live. Gretchen Moran Laskas describes their diet and apparel carefully, but only briefly mentions the company system under which a working man and his family owe their entire livelihood to a company. Often isolated from larger towns, company camps owned not just the mine but also the workers' houses and all the stores where workers could go for supplies. This meant that companies could charge exorbitant prices for basic necessities, charging them against the future earnings of an employee and miring workers in debt from which they could never emerge.

Working conditions were dangerous, profits often taking precedence over human safety. Most companies employed guards who would beat employees at any sign of disobedience and punish them for trying to better their conditions. Although the novel alludes to the terrible conditions in many mines (including the Hawk's Nest Tunnel cave-in that claimed the lives of nearly 500 miners), for the most part these conflicts take place outside the margins of the book.

Also missing is a larger discussion of the process of unionization. At the end of the book Willa's brother leaves to fight for the right to organize, but there is little context about what this means for workers or their families. Thankfully, the author adds some online resources at the end of the book for curious readers to learn more about the period, but that does little to alleviate the sense that many of the realities that would've impacted someone like Willa are omitted in this coming-of-age story.

THE MINER'S DAUGHTER will appeal most to readers interested in historical fiction about young women, particularly those who are outgrowing series like the popular American Girls.

--- Reviewed by Sarah A. Wood

These are the words of Jefferson himself, in the only book he ever printed. In all his failings, yes, he was a raciest, he has to be still looked at carefully as one of the chief architects of American democracy. This is great reading for students of Jefferson.

The book is written much like an epic poem- with lists of river, towns, economic conditions etc in 1780s. But also much more: His feeling on race. He obviously did not hate blacks, proposed a theory that they were less intelligent, had an aesthetic view of man akin to Gulliver's Travels and the horses. Theory of education is much akin to European model of today, much better than current theories in use. He opposed multiculturalism and opposed teaching children religion in schools or anyplace else, preferring Greek, Roman and European histories and philosophy for guidance of children. The difference between the America he wanted and the reality of today is striking. Which is better? Each must judge, but this is a must read book.

I'm preparing the CAPES (French Certificate to teach English to 11 - 18 year olds) and "Jefferson and the West/ the Lewis and Clark expedition" is part of our program. I needed to familiarize myself more with Thomas Jefferson: who he was, his way of thinking etc., and reading "Notes on the State of Virginia", among others, was one way to do that. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it as pleasure reading. You'd have to have a specific reason. To sum up: considering my purpose, I am fully satisfied with my purchase.

I am so tired of people praising Thomas Jefferson as if he were not a racist, hypocritical adulterer. He was also a rapist! Sally Hemings was a child and a slave! She was incapable of giving her consent. She had no choice but to comply with his wishes even if he allowed her the illusion of thinking she did. I would recommend this book because of Jefferson's historical significance and to confirm how racist this "founding father" was. Thomas Jefferson was NOT brilliant or even original. Do you think he invented democracy? Please read Lies My Teacher Told Me if you want to know where Jefferson and his peers gleaned their ideas from.

Thomas Jefferson's " Notes on the State of Virginia" is a brilliant piece of history, sociology, law, geology, government,and science. This work, Jefferson's only book, shows his powerful, brilliant mind at it's best. Jefferson shows the depth of his knowledge, not just on his own beautiful state, but on human nature itself. Some of the gems in this work are his views on education, advocating free public education for all, free government, advocating a revisal of the defective original Virginia Constitution. His knowledge of slavery, and the Indian races before his eyes are from personal experience and observation. Although painted by the deconstuctionist left as a "racist" Jefferson was a dangerous radical to the Virginia gentry due to his advocacy of emacipation and deportation of slaves. His views on black inferiority are exaggerated since he placed them forth as a scientific hypothesis based on personal observation. Jefferson could not see a "multicultural" society in America made up of former masters and slaves with resentment and prejudice still in the hearts of both. Many of his predictions about race relations have come true: hate, resentment, power struggles, and a continuing obsession which he forsaw would destroy the America Republic.

The best edited version of the is Koch and Peden's edited on in "The Life and Selected Writings of Thomas Jefferson", but the full Notes is very good, but the reader must be prepared for numerous charts and tables. Overall a great book, and buy!

Without Robert C. Byrd, West Virginia would not be what it is today. That may be a weird statement, seeing it isn't much now, but it would be nothing. Senator Byrd lobbied hard to get funding for a state the nation forgot about. Robert C. Byrd helped propel West Virginia into a state now gaining national recognition (President Bush likes it for a 4th of July stop). Like him or hate him, you got to respect the man.

I was a little hesitant to buy a biography of over 800 pages. However, I was quite surprised by the content and layout. Although the book is divided into chapters dealing with specific areas of Senator Byrd's life, the narrative is more along the lines of storytelling. I have enjoyed the fact that the format is in small little stories; a motivator to complete a book of this size.

This is an enjoyable, well written book. Although I am originally from West Virginia and thus hold a stronger interest for Senator Byrd, I believe that many will enjoy learning about one of our country's most interesting Senators. Yes, this book does confront the fact that Senator Byrd was in the KKK, unlike what is said in other reviews.

Sent this book to my 89 year old dad who knows Mr. Byrd and who also ran several coal mines in the 50's. So much of the book is true to every detail - this book tells of a time of hard work, good people, company ownership of it's employees, labor unions, and of times that only few know. It is a very pure piece of American History.

Although the Democrats pride themselves on civil rights issues (never mind that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed due to Republicans, not Democrats, who were opposed) they have a lot of 'splainin to do. Apparently, the KKK was "a fraternal group of elites - doctors, lawyers, clergy, judges and other 'upstanding' people". Wow! That's neat... I wonder if anyone will question Senator Byrd about this. People ignored his comments that "(...)", so I suppose he'll get a pass on this, too.
The next time you hear about those "racist Republicans", ask yourself, which party has the dubious honor of having a real life Klansman as their leader in the senate.

An autobiography this book surely is. all 770 pages! I read it with great interest from beginning to end, tho it is a heavy book and could have been shortened considerably.

Senator Byrd published this memoir in 2005 at the age of 87. As a West Virginia senator in Washington, DC. for more than 50 years, he is well qualified to inform us of the workings of government. He manages to convey the story of his entire life and career, as he witnessed and helped shaped American history.

The book is very readable and filled with opinions on most all subjects. Several pictures are appreciated as the reader digests 87 years in the making of a fine gentlemen who, as an orator, a historian, a debator, and a patriotic American, as well as a proud West Virginian, is respected and who inspires us to reach out and make a difference in our corner of the world.

Of course, if you are from the beautiful state of West Virginia, or know someone who is, or have relatives there, or live in neighboring states, or if you, like me, just enjoy learning how our legislative branch has evolved, especially the past half century, you'll enjoy this book also. You may want to visit the
state aptly nicknamed "Mountain Mama" and drive on the highways Senator Byrd helped fund, see the schools and industries named after him, and the bridges, tourist attractions, etc. etc. with his stamp of approval. If it were not for him, a native son who was raised near the coal mines, attended a two room schoolhouse, and worked his way up from a butcher to a senator who "delivered" to his state, we would not be appreciating the wonders of West Virginia, as John Denver portrays in his song "Country Roads".

I was impressed with Senator Byrd's insights. His campaigns over the years had a unique flavor - he played the fiddle and sang mountain music, visited, enjoyed, and helped fund useful projects in every county in his state, made some mistakes, learned from them, and grew into a skillful politician with an attitude - to stand up for what is right, to uphold the Constitution, and to keep America one nation, under God.

I learned a great deal from reading the book and perhaps you will ask legislators from your own state "What have YOU done for us lately!" - It appears to me that Robert C. Byrd, a proud super intelligent West Virginian will be a tough act to follow. Americans will do well to get on the websites of state legislators and voice their concerns.

Incidentally, this reviewer is not from West Virginia, tho I have visited there and studied the history and people. It is a great state for geneology purposes with beautiful websites for every county. Its citizens can be proud and grateful that Senator Byrd's loyalty, influence, support, courage, and calm reasoning has never wavered and that when he speaks before the senate, and to presidents and leaders all over the world, they listen attentively.

After the wonderful Storming Heaven I was so excited to read this book, and then so disappointed. The plot is melodramatic, the characterizations cardboard.

I loved The Unquiet Earth... I loved the relationships and determination of the characters.... After I read this book, I wanted to read it again and again.... There is one thing I suggest you do before you read this one... I suggest you read Storming Heaven.... Storming Heaven is about Dillon's mother and father, and about Tony Angelelli's mother.... If you read this one first you can get their background.... But, Unquiet Earth is hands down my favorite book!! I highly recommend reading this book! The way it is written is really good to understand what each person is thinking during each situation.... You should definitely buy this book! I hope this persuaded you to buy this book...

I really liked this book. Did I like it as much as it's predecessor 'Storming Heaven'? No. But for a sequel, it was very good, and it takes you right into the lives of the offspring of the main characters from the first book.

In fact...this book is much like the first, just in more recent times. It spans from the 1930's to 1990. But to really understand the depth and tragedy of this town, you have to have read 'Storming Heaven' first. It will help you to understand just how long the fight has been going on, where Carrie, Rachel, Dillon, and Jackie all came from, and just how much this town has already been through.

Overall, I'm very glad I found these books. It was interesting to read about the coal strikes, the floods, and all the heartache that plagued the people of this small Appalachia coal mining town. If your at all interested about life in the mountains, and how these folks lived, then definitely pick these up. Ms. Giardina grew up in a town much like the one she portrays in her books, so you can be certain she knows what she's talking about. These may be fiction books, but they're a very real look at coal miners and their families, and all the hardships they had to face.

This was one,if not the only, book that I was forced to read in college that I came away from adoring. The story, which is based on real events (national coal strikes, and the Buffalo Creek Disaster)with a small fictional liberty, is a wonderful piece of American literature that I believe can cross cultural and geographical lines of America. I loved how it followed the lives of two generations during sweeping national events and how it effected everyone, even in a little hamlet in West Virginia. I believe this movie is excellent potential for a movie adaptation. If you want to see a MOVIE that relates to this book, watch John Sayles "Matewan".

This true story takes place in the area where I grew up; I was familiar with its happening. My father was involved in these events. Although I cannot say I enjoyed the book, ( because it was so realistic and tragic), I found it very ,very well written and so moving I lived with it for weeks. It is written entirely from the miners view, and is therefore one sided, but is nevertheless accurate in content. It is obvious that the author knew these people. I would recommend it to anyone interested in the history of this area. katydid

A fun book that makes you want to visit some of these quirkly places. I made a point to go to the mystery hole after reading this!

Its almost as much fun to just sit and read as to use it for a guide to travel the state. This book makes folks look at WV in a new and more exciting light. I really like the chapters on Great Plumbing and Shopping Treasures. The food chapter was also a treat.

If you are at all interested in knowing about or exploring West Virginia, this book is for you. I have never read a better example of an interesting, comprehensive, intelligent and knowledgeable guide to a U.S. state. Mozier and her husband flew around the state in a small plane stopping and gathering interesting and important information about every place you can think about. Don't head to WV without it.

Jeanne Mozier came up with a great idea when she started collecting information for this book. There are so many guides to natural wonders, historical and educational sites, monuments, and so on. This is really something different for people who have a lot of imagination and curiosity. I live right next to West Virginia, but now I can't wait to get out and explore some of the more "way out" aspects of the state.

Found this book to be amusing, informative, easy to use and read. I felt like the book was written just for me to reminisce about how much I miss the beauty anf uniqueness of West Virginia. Please don't stop with West Virginia. I'm sure there are lots of oddities in many other states. Even here in Florida I meet people from WV and always tell them about the book and they now all enjoy their own copies.

This book is a great guide to Virginia City Ghosts. If you are planning to visit Virginia City and interested in ghost, I highly recommend this book. This book tells you the history of Virginia City and the Hotels name and room numbers in witch to stay in that has been known for hunting's. It's exactly what the title say it is a Ghosthunters Guide To Virginia City.
A+++ & 5 * * * * *

Janice Oberding writes the first ever published book on Nevada's most haunted city: Virginia City.

She is an expert on Nevada hauntings.

Superb pictures- highly researched.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

I found this book to be very fun to read and easy to follow. Lots of interesting pictures. History lessons are very informative.

I have visited Virginia City a lot of times. When I saw this book at the book store last month I thought it was just another book about ghosts. I was wrong. This is about the best book I ever read about Virginia Citys ghosts. There were lots of places I didnt even know had ghosts in them. I would recomend it to anyone.

Books of this genre are always fun. Seldom are they so informative. We have been going to Virginia City for a number of years. Never really knew so much about the city until I read this book. Glad I purchased it.

I have no idea why I picked up this book in the first place--I found it lurking in my TBR pile so I gave it a chance. I'm very glad I did.

The good:
The way the hero uses engineering to solve the mystery.
The political details were realistic and infuriating.

The bad:
Can't really find anything.

The excellent:
The characterizations. The characters were a lot more three-dimensional and emotionally complex than I'd have expected from a simple mystery novel.

The verdict:
I'll be looking for the rest of John Billheimer's books, and this time they won't be sitting in my TBR pile forever.

Billheimers books are fun and suspenseful. His West Virginia settings make his books unique.

Highway Robbery is even better than Contrary Blues which was outstanding. Mixes life, mystery, humor, and romance with almost perfect pitch. Usually I am a little disappointed with the answer at the end of a mystery novel. This time I was not. The twists and turns were cleverly constructed. And the tale is witty and insightful with out the mystery.

'Highway Robbery', the second in the 'Owen Allison' murder Mystery series, demonstrates that author John Billheimer is not content to just weave an amusing yarn, but has the ability to surprise and satisfy the reader with a writing style that belies the fact that this is only his second book.

While retaining the down home style of his first novel that found favor with readers, Billheimer paints a fast paced story that delivers enough tension to keep the reader interested until the mystery is solved. But readers who quit at that point will miss a stunning ending. Don't put it down until you've read the last page!

This is a well written, creative story, that I highly recommend. I give it four of five stars.

October 2, 2000

By Steve Forbes Editor-in-Chief

ROAD RAGE

Highway Robbery--by John Billheimer (St. Martin's Minotaur, $24.95). A wonderful blend of numerous, superbly developed--and often eccentric--characters; wry, politically incorrect humor; surprises and suspense, spiced with some of West Virginia's legendary skulduggery-encrusted politics makes for an always interesting murder mystery. Our California-based hero, Owen Allison, is suddenly called home to West Virginia by his mother. She suspects that a skeleton uncovered by a road construction crew is that of her late husband (and Owen's father), who supposedly drowned in a flood decades ago. Owen's father was that true West Virginia rarity--an honest highway commissioner. He and his scruples didn't sit well with plenty of pols and contractors. The mother's hunch about the body is wrong, but she's dead right about her husband's having been the victim of foul play. As Owen discovers, several people have skeletons they'd like to keep hidden in the closet.

This is Billheimer's second mystery. Read it, and you'll be looking for his first--and praying he turns out more like these.

I am a college freshman and so thus my oppinion of this book will be told as such. I see the 'poems' writen in Kettle Bottom as stories, simply reworked to fit in a poem format. The stories hit you hard, but with a soft voice. I personaly give this book 3 out of 5 stars simply because I don't agree with this form of Poetry for the most part. The book is decently written but could be much, much better.

Kettle Bottom is a wonderful book of vibrant and haunting poetry. Fisher captures both the time and the people with authenticity and sensitivity, allowing the reader to live in those moments through her characters. As poetry alone, the book shines brightly.

KETTLE BOTTOM offers various character studies set near the West Virginia mine wars (1920-21), offering an indication not only of the involving lives of the mining community but also the corporate misinterpretation of the passionate intensity of the mining families' commitment to community, family, and home. Characters refer to each other in the various poems, giving us an opportunity to learn indirectly an unofficial history of the community, and we see how even the best-intentioned outsiders (particularly the company-hired schoolteacher and a group of Ohio church ladies) fail to recognize the nobility and spiritual strength of the community. Diane Gilliam Fisher has presented a worthwhile collection of poems in this volume.

This book is beautifully written, with such poignancy and description that you can't help but be touched by the lives of the people of this coal-mining area and era. Certain passages bring tears to your eyes and instill strength in your soul.

Brilliant use of language and dialect. Respectful of the people she's telling stories about. She records accurate history through magnificent storytelling. I could not put it down and read it straight through, blood and heartbeat rising with each turn of the page. "Raven Light" absolutely haunts.

This is a "real" guide. It has been carefully compiled and includes all the information which any water-borne visitor will need to know when visiting the Windward Islands., These are (in the order they appear in the book); Martinique, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Bequia (pronounced Beckway), Mustique, Canouan, Mayreau, Tobago Cays, Palm Island, Union Island, PSV and Petite Martinique, Grenada, Carriacou, and, of course, each of the passages between these enchanting islands.

In an informative introduction, which gets anyone who is sitting in a cold house during an American or European harsh winter (like I am!) wanting to reach for the phone and book a flight, we learn something about the local land and the customs of the people who live there. There are also a number of helpful suggestions on any topic from "what to bring" to sunburn - and it's all useful stuff, even for the seasoned traveller.

Then it's on to the cruising information with notes on weather and navigation as well as more general information about scuba diving, flora, fauna and even the flags of the different countries visited. From now on we get down to cases in the order of march already mentioned.

Telling people how they should navigate their boat is a very responsible undertaking. Forget to include that, otherwise well known, underwater obstacle and you can guarantee at least 3 boats will have hit the darned thing within the first 24 hours of your book being published. This book, however, is a professional work and I doubt any yacht or other small boat travelling to and from these small islands will be without a copy.

NM

If you are planning a trip to the carribeans (Grenadines/Windward Islands) - this is your #1 reference. Excellent! Very complete, in colors, pictures...

I used this book more than the charts. The information is up-to-date and accurate. Don't go sailing with out it.

J. Lemke

Doyle's info was very good and the color arial photos and mini charts are very usefull. The book is 9 inches by 6 inches and has 400 pages, however if you were to remove the advertizments and touristy photos you would probably end up with about 275 pages of usefull info.

This is one of my favorite travel guides, ever, period. Even though this book is aimed at sailors, it has plenty of helpful information for land travelers too. Plus it has a lot of information I've never found in another travel guide. The best example is this. One beautiful night as we sat on our terrace enjoying the 180 degree view of the southern skies, I turned to my travel partner and said, "Did you print off those star charts so we can identify the southern cross?" His response. "Uh oh, I never got around to that."

The next day we looked all over the Island of Bequia for a star chart. We were laughed out of stores, some of which even catered to sailors. At one point I suggested maybe the Sailors Guide we have back at the villa will have a star chart. We agreed it was not likely but hot and tired, we decided to go back and see. We get back, look, and sure enough there it is - a star chart of the southern skies along with a date and time table for determining where everything should be and when. Oh my goodness. We had a chart all along. Thank you Sailors Guide!!

We used that star chart every night for the rest of the week and had a blast locating and identifying all the constellations we could see. It was fascinating watching the southern cross gradually rotate around the point in the sky where the south axis of the earth intersects with the southern sky. Ah, the pace of life on Bequia and the joy of a guide book that delivers way more than expected.