California Books

This book is meant to be savored. It is all things wine and the appreciation of wine. Johnson's actual presence, his life's tale wanders in and out of the narrative. We learn about his schooling, his early university days, about his wife, his early work and publications but that's just part of the beauty of reading this book.

Imagine if you had a friend who not only spoke eloquently but who could talk at great lengths about a subject he held dear to his heart. Imagine this friend to be well-traveled, with many connections and stories to tell. Hugh Johnson might be that ideal friend. He doesn't talk down to the reader, he doesn't namedrop the way some wine writers do, glorifying personalities in the wine trade. Johnson is certainly living a comfortable life but his presentation of facts, experiences and meetings with great wine and great winemakers is lively and surprisingly modest.

The book is divided into several sections: Prospects, Bubbly, White, Red and Sweet. Throughout these sections he explores past episodes of his life, the people he met and the wines he encountered. His style is direct, light, poetic and friendly, an approach in prose that both informs and involves the reader. You never feel like you're being lectured to, mostly that he is here to mentor, to share and express his love of the great fermented grapes of the world.

I would recommend this book to all kinds of readers, especially the wine lovers. If you're starting out or know the difference between a Pouilly-Fusse and Pouilly-Fume, then read this. For wine writing, this work is a treasure. I wish there were more writers like Johnson working in the industry.

A Life Uncorcked is a celebration of the vine. It is a fun read and very informative. I especially love his take on the current wine rating systems, finally someone with sense!

I recently published a brief review of this wonderful book in the print edition of The Washington Examiner newspaper (www.examiner.com -- April 29 & 30th Weekend Edition). Here is that review:

Recently, I had the opportunity to catch up with world-renowned wine writer Hugh Johnson as he breezed through town promoting his new memoir on the inner workings of the wine world, A Life Uncorked. This is a deeply personal book. Yet, as Johnson admits, it is not an autobiography. Rather, this memoir is a personal journey, as much about wine as it is about his life.

For Johnson, wine is essentially "a social game" not merely an interest or a hobby. Wine is "about human relations, hospitality, bonding-all the maneuvers of social life-and all under the influence, however benign, of alcohol." Who can argue with that?

This social experience is richly transformative: "However good a wine may be, sentiment can make it better" and "with the right companion, a single wine can be a continuing conversation." In person, as in his writings, Johnson comes off as witty, personable, and charming, and his approach to wine is wonderfully infectious.

Never one to shy from a fight, Johnson (a Brit) takes issue with Robert Parker, the preeminent American wine critic. Johnson criticizes Parker's wine scoring system, which treats wines "like American high school students"-50 points just for showing up, 60 = dreadful, 70 = pretty poor, 80 = not bad, etc. Johnson decries the effect this approach has had on the wine industry, where wines are Parkerized to get higher scores.

Ultimately, Johnson's unpretentious and highly enjoyable attitude towards wine appreciation is compelling. As he plainly explains, "It depends on whether you see wine primarily as a drink or as a recreational substance. In a drink you look for something refreshing and satisfying without too loud a voice, not too intrusive on your food or your thoughts each time you take a sip." So take a page from Hugh's book, and enjoy a jolly good read with glass in hand.

I must admit that I've never followed the author's wine advice but I cut my wine teeth on his fantastic wine atlas. I bought this book on a whim and it's taken me months to drift through it - not because it's a hard read rather it's sort of a wine vacation experience best experienced without haste.

If you're a wine fan who needs a vacation but can't get away; read a chapter or two and live vicariously.

btw, yes, there is an oft-quoted sentence disparanging GWB and RP in the same whack. Not entirely off the mark though, is it?!

This was a great book. Berriault is a superb writer. She draws her characters with incredible skill and pulls you into the not-so-happy life of her main character. Every line of this book is beautifully written. I haven't read any contemporary authors better at crafting a sentence than Ms. Berriault. On top of all this great writing is incredible insight into the nature of human existence. Worth reading for the writing, the story, or the philosophical insights, and you'll get to appreciate all three! Though the story is a bit depressing at times, it does provide some hope in the end, which, it seems from the reviews I've read, Women in Their Beds does not.

This is a deeply affecting and exquisitely written book. I've gone from Women in the Beds to The Son to The Lights of Earth and feel priviledged to have spent reading time with such a talented writer. What troubles me is that I didn't know about her until she won the National Book Critics Circle Award and that I might never have known of her if Counterpoint Press and Northpoint Press before them hadn't had the courage to publish her.

This is a great little book: a rare combination of great writing and deep emotional and intellectual insight. There are people writing today who are accomplished prose stylists but who just don't have a lot to say. And, conversely, there are writers of great depth whose writing is, well, adequate. Gina Berriault is one of a few great writers alive today who can write and think at the same time. Her honesty and complex literary style which help make her a great writer probably hurt her popular acceptance. She is not a part of the "you go girl" kind of Stalinist social realism that is so popular today which portrays things not as they are, but as they should be in order to be politically correct. Nor is she a pulp fiction romance novelist. She is more interested in reality and writing great fiction. She is not perfect and I do have some small criticisms. In The Lights of Earth, Ilona, the main character, receives a couple of notes from her neglected brother who is apparently mildly retarded. My criticism is that the notes seem a little too well written for even a mildly retarded person. Also, I believe she may be a little too generous sometimes towards her male characters , giving them a compassion or understanding that in reality may be something more controlled and manipulative. I want to emphasize that these are small criticisms of a wonderful book. As I said at the begining, her writing is beautiful, and dense with emotional and intellectual meaning. At her best her writing is poetic, even Shakespearean. If you love great writing, then buy and read this book.

Gina Berriault's "The Lights Of Earth" is a wonderfully intimate novel which explores feelings of guilt, pain and betrayal in a woman novelist Ilona on the verge of losing a lover who's taken off to high places. Using beautifully lyrical prose, she insinuates and entices, then reels and draws you in. Ilona's sense of foreboding when she meets the hosts of the dinner party she attends with Claud foreshadows not so much her breakup with Martin but more significantly her discontinued relationship with her older semi-retarded brother Albert whom she had deliberately left behind. The feelings of guilt, pain and loss that these later chapters evoke are so real and true they moved me to tears. Berriault's genius lies in the economy, intimacy and emotional accuracy of her writing. I think Ilona realised at the end that the world isn't made of two kinds of people, those "blessed" and those not. Ilona's distress from Martin's departure is mirrored in Albert's hopeless pining for his sister to make contact and this is what gives the novel a balance and roundness that makes "The Lights Of Earth" such an excellent novel. I don't know if this is the place to discover Berriault. I do know however that I enjoyed it immensely and if the proof of the pudding isn't in the eating, where then lies it ?

I really love this book. I have the original smaller version from 1981, published by Chronicle Books. This first edition is featured in a separate section on Amazon with two reviews--and I'm shocked at the hostility of both reviewers, who seem to think there was and is no literary accomplishment in Los Angeles. The expanded third edition, as shown here, is much more appreciated, given the good reviews it has received. It's fascinating to read about talented people like Huxley, Thomas Mann, Jack London, Jack Kerouac, Somerset Maugham, etc....and how living and working in Los Angeles influenced their careers and personal lives. These bohemians-in-exile were free-thinkers, ahead of their time while living creative lives in and around Hollywood. Read this book if you're interested in the literary tradition of Los Angeles. You'll especially like it if you're an Aldous Huxley fan.

Lionel Rolfe's book is a delightful meandering journey through the past and present of LA literature. At first glimpse, it's not constructed along the lines of an argument. That's because it is not, by Rolfe's own admission, an academic treatise. But after a good read, one finds that a consistent message does come through. And argument or not, it's a great book to curl up with because it gives readers a chance to revel in the past.

As one of its most important themes, the book outlines several strains of the Bohemian movement as expressed in Los Angeles. Stressing that Bohemians came from a variety of political backgrounds, Rolfe nonetheless shows the radical strains informing their activities. He also laments that these days, there's not much going on that could be considered truly radical in LA literature, a loss he traces in part to the decline of the coffee house.

Literary LA also gives a geographical tour of many of the sites around the city which feature connections to past literary greats. Who knew that Monrovia and Pasadena housed some of America's greatest writers, let alone a small house off an alley in Hollywood where Jack London MAY have slept?

Maybe the best chapter is the one on Bukowski. Here Rolfe talks about spending time with the great poet, and here the book gets most gritty. And delicious.

If you have an interest in LA literature (and if Rolfe is right, more American literature than you think is Los Angeles-connected) you need to buy this book.

Lionel Rolfe's In Search of LITERARY L.A. is meticulous, catholic, personable and intimate. Refreshingly undetached. One senses the intelligence and love smiling behind each careful stitch of this work.
The book does not grind academic axes, shadow box with genres or `dominant traditions' (or grant money or department heads ad nauseum) all the while pretending scholarly aloofness. It does not eschew opinion. How could it since the author has as they say `been around' - as L.A. journalist, writer and bohemian - and knows of which he speaks. And, of which he speaks is
spoken with integrity, insight, and a touching charming boyish wonder. And compassion.
Rolfe reports, extrapolates, describes the indescribable fabric of a city without one - then or now - and this fabric's effects on an art much tied to, and determined by, time and place: Literature.
Literary L.A.'s third edition, like its previous ones, is written in a fierce journalistic style, with ample and eccentric quotes woven in, dates, names, places - whos whens wheres - about writers as different from each other as their respective reactions to Los Angeles. Love and Hate; Sickness and Death; Nightmare and Eden. (Macolm Lowry hated it but it was
the place he met and was delivered to B.C. by his beloved Marguerie, a native; Nathaniel West suffering on his back with prostate saw the hills burning from his stifling Aptos-Sed room and wrote one of the most powerful scenes of L.A. in Twentieth-century literature; Bukowski talked of Europe and Art as he stumbled the trashy wine-hazed alleyways of central L.A,)
The gang's all here - West, Lowry, Faulkner, Huxley, Bukowski and so many many others. (Had I not picked up this particular book I would not have become aware of a tapestry I barely knew existed.) The gang's here. And so is Lionel Rolfe who chronicles their love/hate relationship with the sprawling
Klieg-lit backalley that is Los Angeles.

By Paul Lappen, Dead Trees Review

Based on a series of newspaper pieces written in the late 1970s, this book profiles some of the people who made Los Angeles' bohemian culture in the 20th century. Many people think that San Francisco, with the Beat Generation, was the "center" of bohemian living, but the City of Angels had quite a thriving culture of its own.

It all grew out of the coffeehouse scene, where a constantly changing group of poets, literary gypsies, writers in exile (real or self-imposed) and others, would get together and weave pieces of the literary tapestry of Los Angeles. Rolfe profiles the famous, and not so famous, including Theodore Dreiser, Charles Bukowski, Henry Miller, John Steinbeck, Aldous Huxley and the Mann brothers (Thomas and Heinrich). There is also a piece on Upton Sinclair's 1934 campaign for Governor of California. Running on the Socialist Party ticket, he received 45 percent of the vote despite a major smear campaign against him.

As part of a musical family (the virtuoso violinist Yehudi Menuhin was an uncle), Rolfe grew up in a household that offered a place to go for musicians and other artists-in-exile. This book was not written as some piece of dry literary history, it was written by someone who was there and lived through that era, and has spent much of his life writing about it.

As a lifelong voracious reader, I very much appreciated Rolfe's putting a person and life to the names I have seen on book covers my whole life. Anyone with an interest in 20th century American literature will enjoy this book. I think I'll visit my local library and see how many of these authors are in the stacks. Meantime, this book is highly recommended.

There's a sea-horse race in this book. Not just a sea-horse race, but a sea-horse race inside a giant diamond-shaped tank of oxygenated fluid that also holds a beautiful submerged woman dancing and creating music with the movement of her locks of hair, sometimes enhancing the gyration of her head with sudden tosses and jostles of her hips. There's not only that, but several automaton devices that use flotation and buoyancy to drive their mechanic parts and act out various historical and mythological scenes. Like Voltaire suddenly doubting his atheistic doctrines, or Atlas kicking a celestial object, or Pilate being branded on the forehead.

All of that takes place inside the gigantic diamond-like tank of oxygenated fluid. A very lustrous fluid.

By the way, the English translation sometimes calls the sea-horses "hippocampi." Don't be confused: in context, it means sea-horses. It's not talking about parts of a brain. You might be thinking, "well there's no possible room for confusion there!", but au contraire. Because inside the tank is also a floating head/face of Danton, composed exclusively of the preserved nerves and musculuture, without any bones or skin. And re-animated with expertly applied electrical currents, courtesy of Canterel and his cat.

And they're not just any sea-horses. They're sea-horses equipped with "setons" attached to a shining golden sphere that they themselves created by kneading together small globulets of golden wine that Canterel pours into the tank and lets float down to them.

The entire episode I'm talking about took place long after the book had already left my jaw on the floor. In short: read it. You know that "dream-like" quality that hyped books supposedly possess? Say, like "Amnesia Moon"? Well Raymond Roussel accomplishes all that without any narrative tricks, without any deception, without any ill-defined or sensationally blurred "boundaries between dream and reality" or any of that nonsense. Roussel accomplishes his feats the old fashioned way: with elbow grease, and imagination. He accomplishes it by giving everything to you, not hiding things from you.

Who is the Canterel I mentioned above? Canterel-- a name that one should never utter aloud except on bended knee-- has the wealth and quirk of Willy Wonka, combined with the wealth and ingenuity of Bruce Wayne. Which makes for a very rich, very marvelous fellow. His estate and private collection puts both of those men's assets to shame, quite extravagantly.

As you already know, the book is a narrated trip through some of Canterel's exhibits. He aims to please, though. So don't think that the book will lack character, plot, or suspense just because it's a sort of museum-tour. There's stories within stories that explain the exhibits. And they have everything that archetypically good "stories" have, and more: love, betrayal, forgiveness, fantastic magnanimity, loss, disgrace, lust, vindication. I was breathless waiting for the resolutions of certain tales, practically jumping off my reading-bench to cheer for the characters, or otherwise immobilized by the revelations and vicissitudes.

Did I mention that nerves/musculuture of Danton's head are set into physiological motor motion by an electric current provided by a swimming cat whose hairless body acts as a battery after eating a specially-designed pill and is trained to stick its head into a long metal hat-like cone which becomes its electrode terminus?

And it's all described soberly, no tricks. By the way, Roussel (though there's a chance it's the translators doing, since I haven't and couldn't read the original French) tells his stories, tells the motivations and actions of characters, with a very skillful use of words, using strong descriptive verbs and nouns. The sentences held together with a unique power. Many times I took great pleasure in re-reading certain sentences, because they were said so absolutely perfectly. Of course, that should be the hallmark of a professional writer, but I don't find it too often.

So anyway you'll feel like you're there. You won't even have any disbelief to suspend. At certain points, like a particular early exhibit that I won't name, I said to myself, "There's no going back, this is too fantastic, there's no POSSIBLE EXPLANATION of this, Roussel has crossed the line, this is uncanny and totally unrecoverable at this point, I feel exploited!," and I kept reading, kept reading-kept reading, "by god, no, by GOD HE'S DONE IT!, he's doing it, by god Canterel, Roussel, you've done it, my good holy god unbeliEVABLE!!! Whew. Wow." I had to close the book for a minute and lean against a fence, nodding my head uncontrollably. When you close this book and put it on your shelf when done, you'll keep suspecting that it's about to burst open and spill out its contents all over your room, neighborhood, and city-- and you'll feel like an angry god for actually having the ability to close the book and contain it.

Book will take your breath away. If not check your pulse. Or, try something else. Bye.

I used to have so much fun reading this book. I remember I miraculously found a copy in some book shop on the far southside of Chicago for $8. One night I was drinking with some classmates shortly after class and I made the mistake of lending this irreplacable book to one of them, which of course the fool never returned nor probably ever read or if he did appreciated. May every curse be piled upon your perfidious little name, punk, which it is a blessing I can't remember it was so long ago.
I remember the first time I read Impressions of Africa, right after graduating high school. I was a naive young admirer of Duchamp at the time, and I kept seeing these references to Roussel, and the description of Impressions made it sound like a travel book. Had I known him then I might have expected something like a French William Cobbett. Ha! I don't think I realized something definitely strange was going on in those pages until I reached the part with the father and his sons echoing their voices off of each other's chests with their shirts being stuck to their skin "by some sticky substance", -- the word "substance" somehow set me laughing for a solid twenty, thirty minutes, and all the hilarity, the absurdity of the Incomporables' show that had gone on before were finally apparent to me. I have been a lover of Roussel ever since; the only casualty was my perspective of Duchamp's accomplishment, which is as Duchamp himself admitted greatly indebted to Roussel's.
Locus Solus is the book Roussel wrote after Impressions and the two make a pair unlike any other in literature. Locus is presided over by Martial Canteral, a figure right out of Jules Verne, who Roussel once said was a name that should not be spoken aloud "except on bended knee," -- hm, yes -- Canterel is a famous scientist and inventor, and the book is set at his estate where a group of distinguished figures have been invited to a tour of guided by none other than its owner and director. The book follows the tour as one of the eyewitnesses, and the sights along the way are so bizarre, the machinery so complex and beyond any reasonable utility, it quite defies any attempt to describe the effect here. One impression I think that merits a word or two is the apparent lack of emotion in the book. I would say that there is a great amount of sadness and tragedy in the book that adds a kind of under-layer parallel to the encoded sentences of Roussel's method. The vitallium episode, in which Canterel invents a "certain chemical" that makes the bodies of the dead become animate again (but are still dead) has a very particular strain of anguish and loss inherent in its concept. And then there is also the weariness of the visionary experienced by the reader, the author, and the characters being audience to so many impossibilities one after the other piled up so high there is an actual physical exhaustion after the conclusion. And then of course there is also the tragedy of the author himself, who had both novels lavishly adapted for the theater, and created two of the most colossal failures in the history of drama, causing riots and scandal at the showings and humiliation to the author. He ended up a pitiful man, addicted to drugs and having spent all his fortune, he killed himself in his forties with a great dream "of a glory that shall outshine that of Victor Hugo or Napoleon."
This is not a book for everyone, perhaps even for very few. However there is no good reason these two books are out of print. It is long past time they are reprinted and Roussel be given the honor he deserves.

i read this book when i was about 13 and i have been wanting to read it again for 17 years. i remember it only vaguely, but i know it was good. please mister publisher, print it again.

Roussel's novels are giant puzzles, in which he describes images and stories that have a unique carnival logic. Punning relationships generate textual rebuses (rebi?), in a way that makes the reader aware of the book as a mechanism, but Roussel gives too few clues to really understand it. In Locus Solus, Roussel gives a tour of the museum garden of an eccentric millionaire, who, like Roussel himself, collects with a frenetic and psychedelic rationalism. Please, Riverrun Press, reprint this book.

Not too heavy but packed with information. This guide will take you from Santa Barbara to San Diego.

This is not the first LP guide that I buy and you could say I really am a regular customer
It was so helpful and useful that my trip without it couldn't have been the same... A must for all LA visitors

These guides are always helpful. There is something for everyone. There's a good mix of everything you could want; from shopping to dinners etc etc. I've always found their books to be 99% acurate (as far as prices etc for sights), and they are well detailed. This book is no different. You'll find your travels much easier with this.

We spent a week in the LA area visiting a long term resident and used this book every day! We wanted to visit both tourist sites and places off the beaten track, and were able to do both. Our family had a diverse list of places to go and things to do - see a star or two, visit hollywood, visit some ethnic areas (such as Little Saigon for an article for chaobannewsletter.com), visit an aquarium, eat family friendly food, hit the beaches, go to an amusement park, etc. It helped us with everything.

My only quibble is that we could have used even more family oriented advice and recommendations.

I looked at five or six guidebooks before picking this one - both because I have used their guides before and because it seemed to do the best job with details and off the beaten track exploration. This definately was the right choice. We used it every single day - to plan, to get to each place and also to eat.

The other reviews here are better, but I just needed to tell you how much this book changed my view of words, writing... all that stuff. Or even more than that. After reading her poems, I went outside and things just looked different. Don't worry about what you do or don't know, these are really worth reading.

Let me tell you about Lorine Niedecker. She did not apologize for being born. This volume--far exceeding the much derided previous collected "From This Condensery"--represents the very best of Twentieth Century American poetry, let there be no doubt. More than just poems that echo Dickinson, Zukovsky, Williams, and who else, "Collected Works" will now surely stand as one of the cornerstones of American poetry, thanks to the hard work of editor Jenny Penberthy. The best of these poems--"Darwin" and "Paen to Place", among others--are beautiful distillations of the real. And other pieces, such as the radio plays, show great, surreal humor. Lorine from Ft. Atkinson is one the best.

I first learned of Lorine Niedecker (1903 -- 1970) from reading a selection of her poetry in Volume 2 of the Library of America's Anthology of American Poetry of the Twentieth Century. I was intrigued by the restrained, simple, and succinct character of the poems for two reasons. First, they reminded me opf poetry I knew: of the work of Charles Reznikoff, in particular, and of his fellow-objectivist poets, Louis Zukofsky, George Oppen, and W.C. Williams. I later learned, of course, that Niedecker knew these writers, and was close to them. She was particularly close to Louis Zukofsky, with whom she carried on a forty year correspondence and had a brief affair.

I was also intrigued when I learned that Lorine Niedecker spent most of her life in the small town of Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, which is approximately mid-way between Milwaukee and Madison. She lived on a small island called Black Hawk Island outside the town where her family rented cabins and fished. Much of her life was spent in poverty and for several years she was employed scrubbing floors in the local hospital. Most of the poets with whom Niedecker was associated lived in New York City. Although she visited New York City and spent time with Zukofsky, for the most part she learned and practiced her art by herself.

I was familiar with Fort Atkinson because I lived for a short time in my early 20's in Jefferson, Wisconsin, an even smaller town just adjacent to Fort Atkinson. I was there briefly in the early 1970's, just after Niedecker's death (She lived in Milwaukee at the time.) and I don't remember hearing anything about her. Today the town of Fort Atkinson and the local library where Niedecker worked for a time are active in preserving her memory. I was moved to discover the work of this outstanding modernist poet who lived in obsurity in an area with which I was familiar.

I was grateful to find this collected edition of Niedecker's works edited by Jenny Penberthy, Professor of English at Capilano College, Vancouver. Ms. Penberthy has also edited a recently-published collection of letters between Niedecker and Zukofsky together with a book of critical essays: "Lorine Niedecker: Woman and Poet". This collected edition of Niedecker's poetry is attractively put togther, includes good notes and a listing of Niedecker's published volumes, and begins with an informative introduction by Ms. Penberthy to Niedecker's life and work. The poems are arranged chronologically. The book includes Niedecker's early efforts and also includes some important prose and radio pieces, including the short work "Switchboard Girl" and a radio adaption of Faulkner's "As I lay dying." Ms. Penberthy has done a great service in making Niedecker's work available.

Much of Niedecker's early work was as a folk-poet. In 1946, she published a collection of 80 short poems called "New Goose", which was based on the rhythms of the Mother Goose nursery rhymes. These poems describe life in rural Wisconsin and show a strong sense of political activism -- in common with Zukofsky. They point to the injustices and hardships Niedecker found in war, the Depression, and a capitalist economy. A subsequent collection of early poems was titled "For Paul", named after Zukofsky's young son, and featuring meditations on music, art, and the world of nature.

Niedecker's later poetry becomes much more spare and formal. She tended to write short poems, in five lines with irregular feet. She was influenced by Haiku and by Chinese poetry aw well as by her fellow-objectivists. These poems are autobiographical, and include many scenes of life on Black Hawk Island. The longest of these poems is titled "Paean to Place". Later poems also describe the Lake Superior area around Sault Ste. Marie which Niedecker visited with her husband whom she married late in life. She also grew increasingly interested in historical themes and wrote poetry about Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Adlai Stevenson, and Charles Darwin, among others. These poems integrate extensively quotations from their subjects into the text of the poems.

Niedecker's poems include irony, reflection, and a deep sense of place. They show a person who had learned to be alone with herself. Here is a short untitled poem by Niedecker (p. 157) which I hope will encourage you to read more.

"The death of my poor father
leaves debts
and two small houses.

To settle this estate
a thousand fees arise--
I enrich the law.

Before my own death is certified,
recorded, final judgement
judged

Taxes taxed
I shall own a book
of old Chinese poems

and binoculars
to probe the river
trees."

This is a collection of the works of an American poet who deserves to be read and remembered.

This is the definitive Niedecker. If you love poetry, you owe it to yourself to read Niedecker. Her influences run from surrealism, to Objectivism, to Haiku. Niedecker is an American original as distinctive in her way as Dickinson was in hers. We are in Jenny Penberthy's debt for bringing Niedecker's work to the attention of 21st Century readers.

This is an up-to-date, concise, bitingly humourous, and thorough L.A. guide for anyone with kids. The L.A. Zoo piece was hysterical and while I didn't agree with the Getty center piece (I loved it with my 3 year old daughter) the book is very helpful for all los angelian residents and visitors with kids in the stroller years. Highly recommeneded!

This book goes beyond the hype most other gudieboks engage in. It is a practical, insightful book for anyone, parent, nanny or auntie, who gets out and about with small children.

Brutally honest and highly effective, it tells you exactly what you need to know and not a bunch of hype. Easy to use and read, it's also a fun read with biting satire and good old common sense.

Living in Los Angeles, I have always had out of town guests that have wanted me to show them the sites. It was easy before my sister visited with her three children. I was at a loss of where to take them. Toddlers are not the night club crowd. I searched book stores everywhere and found a handful of travel guides with single chapters on "things to do with kids in Los Angeles". Despite the lack of info, we still managed to show my neice and nephews a good time.

A couple of years later and I had my own toddler. Thinking back to the difficulty that I had with my sister's kids, I went back to the bookstore hoping that there were better books out there. I found a lot. But out of all the new titles, Los Angeles by Stroller was absolutely the best.

This book is wonderful, whether you call Los Angeles your home, or whether your visiting for only a few days, Shelley-Anne's "five strollor" grading scale makes it extremely easy to find the type of outing you want. The best part about it is that she has already done all the work for you, and I have agreed with her every single time.

You can search outings alphabetically, by category or type of outing, or by area of Los Angeles County. The only thing that I would add is a the ability to search by grading scale. For quick reference I have gone into the index and penned in how many strollers, (0-5) she graded each place. This has made if very easy for me to try to take my son to all the places Shelley-Anne thinks are "the best."

I love this book, I recommend it to everyone with a stroller.

I'm expecting twins this fall & although the information in this book will serve me well in a couple of years, it's less directed for pre-toddler stroller activities. This book is great for when your children are approximately 1 ½ - 2 years old. I will use this book as my "Toddler Guide Bible" when they are a bit older.

I have to agree with the other reader-- that surprise twist at the end of 110 (the freeway, not the page) was so unexpected! It's true, every page tells a story, and you absolutely won't believe 767 E5.

i heard the hype about how popular this book was, who was i to stand in the way of this books progress. progress u ask? why of course, this book is probably the one most riviting influencial piece of american literature to date. it provides a compass, a compass to the soul and to our hearts. and itll give u direction in life... page 345-C4 put chills down my spine because it hit home.

Suprisingly, Thomas Bros. has again, given us a book to put on our list of "Top Books ever Written." Its beguilingly sexy appeal to life will keep you on your seats as you finally come to the realization that yes, even YOU will one day seek the help of...THE GUIDE! But don't take my word for it, read page 4697 and you too will become believer.

Smart, sassy, and full of surprises, the Thomas Guide kept me laughing from cover to cover.

All the books by Arcadia on 'Images of America' are very good, and this book is no exception. I was always interested in the Doheny's, and Chester Place--have read the biography of Edward Doheny-which is also very good, and have had the good fortune to visit Chester Place and the Doheny Mansion, so this just tops it all off nicely. I also know about the Seavers and Herbert Wylie who had homes there and this explained more about the connection with them and the Doheny's. The photos are just excellent, fact filled and of great interest. I liked this little book alot!

I've always been a big fan of Arcadia Publications and their attempt to recapture Southern California's past. Chester Place continues the Arcadian legacy by providing information about the little known neighborhood called Chester Place. Like the Doheny legacy, Chester Place has been shrouded in history. Mr. Sloper unveils the past with photo's and stories about the inhabitants. Of interest are the pictures in Chapter 6 called Neighbors. The photos are precious, especially the photo of St. Edward who looks remarkably like Mr. Doheny. I was also happy to see photo's of the Stimpson house on Figueroa as it has been a long held mystery to LA. Mr. Sloper narratives are very revealing and the book is entirely enjoyable.

Using his considerable storytelling talent, Don Sloper showcases an often overlooked gem of Los Angeles history in this book. Los Angeles and the contributions of the Edward Doheny family come alive for new generations to enjoy. Well done, Mr. Sloper!

In a city where history proves elusive, Mr. Sloper's well-written and engaging book helps to convey a wealth of information and interesting observations of Los Angeles's storied past. Coming from a narrow angle that is the Doheny Mansion and surrounding environs, we learn about a particularly strong couple and their surprisingly normal and quiet life of luxury in the heart of old LA. The pictures and narrative paint a detailed picture of the Doheny family and their mansion and leave the reader with a desire to learn more, to become involved and to perhaps help protect the fragile past in a city that is known for its constant obsession with living in, nay, inventing the future for better or worse.

Magic Quizdom is a must-have for any Disneyland fan. With three levels of difficulty, every Disneyland aficionado will be able to join in the fun.
The Magic Quizdom is a fantastic book to bring when going to Disneyland. It's especially useful when waiting in long lines, like the one for Nemo's Submarine Voyage. You can quiz your friends or make new friends and quiz others around you. It's a blast for everyone.

This book gives you some great little unknown facts in a fun format. A must if you are a true Disney nut!

Kevin Yee (of the best Disney website on the Internet: Miceage.com) and Jason Schultz have put together a terrific treasure trove of little known facts and trivia about Disneyland. While Gordon and Mumford's Disneyland: The Nickle Tour is STILL the best book ever produced about the theme park, this surprisingly dense effort offers in words a perfect companion to what they provide in photographs. Together, they provide a wonderful two volume reference set about the Happiest Place on Earth. My one and only complaint is that it's, well, organized as a multiple choice trivia book, albeit with paragraph long answers that go far beyond the question asked. I feel that more could have been accomplished had it just been written as a book, and thus I found myself skipping the question sections altogether and just reading the "answer" sections because that's where the true magic of this book is. All in all, it's great. This is one of the first books about Disneyland without pictures that I absolutely couldn't put down! Purchase this at Miceage and support Kevin!

As someone who frequents Disneyland about 40 times a year thanks to an annual pass, I thought I knew everything about Disneyland. This book gives valuable insight to little known facts. Sure, maybe they can be looked up on the internet or are common knowledge to some, but it's nice to have it all in a nice, inexpensive little book. In fact, my wife and I have taken this book to Disneyland to verify some of the information. If you want a different slant on history, background and secrets of Disneyland, this is a good place to start.