Tours and Travel Books

'A most beguiling, glittering book that offers riches of information and the pleasures both of recognition and discovery.' That is Elizabeth Healy's subtitle, and very aptly chosen it is.

Ireland is an endlessly rocking cradle of culture and the source of much that is great in literature written in the English and the Irish languages.

There is no better way to appreciate and understand this noble and great country than to take Healy's volume in hand and traverse her green hillsides and rocky promontories overlooking the wild North Atlantic. En route you'll see the homes and favorite haunts of the greats and the lesser known writers.

It is still something of a miracle that such a small place can have produced such literary wealth: Swift, Sheridan, Goldsmith, Burke, Wilde, Joyce, Yeats, Shaw, and Beckett have made a major contribution to world literature over the past 300 years. Ireland's four Nobel prizes for literature have gone to Yeats, Shaw, Beckett and Seamus Heaney.

Ireland is especially blessed with a glorious language of its own: Irish. Healey does not stint in giving us many Irish passages, both from the storied past and present-day writiers, such as Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, whose verses, according to Healy, capture something of the fierce tenderness of Kerry's rocky acres.

Healy is especially good in her maps and illustrations. She literally shows you the way there. I took this book with me to the Aran Isles, County Galway and Connemara. I walked the Bloomsday walk in Dublin, paused for coffee at Davey Byrne's, and also journeyed to Swift's tomb in Dublin.

SWIFT has sailed into his rest;
Savage indignation there
Cannot lacerate his breast.
Imitate him if you dare,
World-besotted traveller; he
Served human liberty.

Perhaps my favorite spot of all: Yeats' rebuilt Norman tower of Thoor Ballylee, set in a glen by a flowing stream and overlooking cow pastures near Gort, Galway. And just up the road, Coole Park, with its evocation of the patroness of Irish literature Lady Augusta Gregory:

Here, traveller, scholar, poet, take your stand
When all those rooms and passages are gone,
When nettles wave upon a shapeless mound
And saplings root among the broken stone,
And dedicate--eyes bent upon the ground,
Back turned upon the brightness of the sun
And all the sensuality of the shade --
a moment's memory to that laurelled head.

William Butler Yeats "Coole Park, 1929"

Susan Wilson has done a wonderful job writing essentially a "travel" book in an approachable and compelling style. Her instructions and "trails" are clear and logical and take you into some of the prettiest areas in Boston and the surrounding towns. Yet while she is directing you in and among the alleyways, Wilson manages to weave a compelling history of characters and places that has you heading for your local library to check out long-forgotten authors. I've drawn up a whole "Boston" reading list to reacquaint myself with some old friends and maybe make some new ones.

Surprised nobody has commented on this item yet. Having lived in rome many years, I am suffering from the traditional guidebook fatigue, and lately, to kill boredom, if I find a new guidebook by someone entering the guidebook market, I usually browse it and in a couple of hours quickly find a list of factual errors. But this one is different. First of all, was impressed by the original photographs. Curators are usually very protective of their collections, specially from commercial photographers. It is obvious that the author had many friends that got her in (... and that is explained in the acknowledgments). Then, the factual linkages between the many historical facts. Shows that it has been very throughly researched (.. and again aknowledged in the help by American Academy folks et al). The quality of the paper is very good. The list of these little-known museums very well chosen. Most likely the contact info on how to arrange the tours is probably obsolete by now, but that is the nature of Italian offices and bureaucracies. Was disappointed that the book did not include the appartment of Via Tasso 145, that is known as Museo della Liberazione, but I can see how seeing the rooms where people were tortured by the Nazis can be not appropriate for everyone.

The small size of this book makes it easy to carry around as you explore London's cemeteries. The author has a nice writing style; very informative and interesting. There are also some good photos, and pertinent information is well-presented. Not only is the book useful, but I learned a lot from reading it.

Inspired by Nigel Simeone's 'A Paris Musical Gazetteer', Lewis Foreman, a distinguished writer on British music with more than twenty books to his credit (among them volumes on Havergal Brian, Edmund Rubbra, Arthur Bliss, and Edward Elgar) and Susan Foreman (I don't know if she is his wife or daughter or no relation) have written a compelling gazetteer of sites associated with classical music in London. It details the history of sites around London where various musical events, composers, performers, even music publishers have flourished. There are chapters on theaters, concert halls and watering places, on choral music and organs, on conservatories, museums, libraries, musical paintings, on graves and memorials to musicians, on the BBC, on orchestras, and on recording locations (including Abbey Road, which of course has had a distinguished history aside from that famous Beatles recording). There is a long section on composers and musicians in London, including really quite detailed information about where various musicians lived, going all the way back to Purcell and beyond.

There is a delightful section called 'Five Musical Walks' which are doable rambles that take in such things as where Berlioz and Wagner stayed while in London, the Wigmore Hall, Harold Moores's music shop, and a great deal more. And a section on musical selections that evoke London and environs.

The authors do not claim this to be a scholarly work, but indeed the number of facts (they must have done assiduous research!) is astounding. Did you know that Sir Adrian Boult left his body to scientific research? Or that the celebrated contralto Dame Clara Butt was six foot two? Or that W. S. Gilbert (of Gilbert and Sullivan fame) died of a heart attack while trying to save a drowning young girl? There is a chatty tone and the authors even dish some dirt (see the section on Constant Lambert, or the anecdote about John Ireland's companion, Norah Kirby, attending an Ireland concert wearing gumboots and a pair of John's trousers).

There are many pictures - of musicians, of concerts, of musician's homes, et al. - that are printed in the side-columns of the extra-wide glossy pages. My only complaint about the book, in fact, is that it is rather unwieldy because of the wide pages. There are maps that are very helpful for non-Londoners, a bibliography, instructions about how to reach certain sites whether using public transport, driving or walking, and even web addresses of interest.

This is the sort of book one could read front to back or more likely to dip into as interest dictates. Either way, it's a marvelous addition to a musiclover's library.

Scott Morrison

I am an extensive user of travel guides, particularly ones for travelers on a budget. The Lonely Planet books have the same budget travel info on hotels, airline travel, how to get around by bus, train, etc. that my other favorite series, "Let's Go" has. However, you don't get to learn as much history and culture in the Let's Go books like you do in Lonely Planet. Let's Go is more of a reference book. Lonely Planet teaches you local culture and has much more comprehensive coverage of the region, especially this one-the Carolinas and Georgia. Let's Go doesn't give North and South Carolina nearly as much justice as this Lonely Planet book. Let's Go never mentions the Triad or Wilmington, NC. Lonely Planet has a good section on those. This book makes the least-heralded travel destinations look interesting. This series is also updated an average of every two years, and they welcome input from readers and they use it for the next edition.

This book has an entire section on Atlanta, including a set of very good maps and a MARTA map. You will do well in Atlanta with this book. Charleston and Myrtle Beach, and somewhat of Columbia, SC are well documented, and the up-country of Greenville/Spartanburg are represented. In North Carolina, you'll learn about the Triangle, Charlotte, the Western NC mountain region, and all the beach areas from top to bottom. Georgia has the entire state covered, even the mountain areas of the northeastern part of the state, where there are some excellent state parks, and of course, the southern end of the Appalachian Trail. You will also get to explore Savannah, Augusta, Hilton Head, and much more. There is a good deal of info in the book, and it isn't overbearing to find your way around in it.

Very good information for international travelers from abroad as well. For those of you who visit our area and have never been to the South before, you'll get a handy primer on its eccentricities and its triumphs, as well as how to get along with the most genteel and aristocratic of Southern ladies and gentlemen.

This little book has everything you'd need to plan a hike along any part of the trail. Maps are not large, so you might want to get a USGS topo map of the section you want to hike.

This is a derivative work which is most enjoyable if one has a tiny bit of knowledge about De Soto. For budding De Soto enthusiasts, Looking For De Soto is a must read.

Joyce Rockwood Hudson has written a lively and entertaining account of a six-week vacation she and her husband took in November-December 1984 where they followed the sixteenth century explorer De Soto's trail through the southeastern United States.

You have to love people who shun the cruise ships and Disneyworld and Madison Avenue in order to tromp around in the mud of backwater swamps while on vacation.

One might reasonably ask, who is this lady, and why should we care? She is the wife of noted anthropology professor Charles Hudson, and we should care because Professor Hudson has set forth an alternative route for the De Soto expedition, differing in important ways from the route as determined by the Swanton Commission (published by Smithsonian Press, 1939).

The issue has not been settled - that of De Soto's precise route - but Professor Hudson's theories are interesting and taken seriously by academia as well as people such as myself who enjoy visiting historic places.

If you are lost, don't feel alone. So are the Hudsons. That's the point. No one really knows where De Soto went, exactly, but the author ignites interest. She also describes in an engaging way a portion of the field work conducted while on "vacation", adding weight to Professor Hudson's theories.

And remember, folks, this is only one theory of many. That's most of the fun. Those of us who consider ourselves southerners can relate. It is sort of like arguing whether Alabama's football team is number one, or Georgia's or Florida's...

Only this stuff happened four hundred and fifty years ago, and the debate rages.

These Conquistador fellows didn't ask for directions, they just snatched the first native American that came along and clapped him in chains if he didn't speak right up.

Mrs. Hudson keeps you moving right along, with interesting detours about pecans, zinc mining, salt making, etc. She writes clearly, has a keen eye for the absurd, and knows how to deliver a punch line. I'm still laughing over the French colonial town of Smackover. I would also imagine that if you poke too many holes in her husband's theories, she might chew off your ear. A stand up lady.

One or two fly specks in the book. A map comparing Hudson and Swanton routes would have helped enormously. You'll find yourself sorting through the Atlas and a dusty copy of the Swanton report. The author also fails to mention the name of a good rib place in Memphis. Unconscionable. The Afterword updates the reader on happenings through 1992, when the book was published.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book. I wish De Soto would have had someone like Joyce Rockwood Hudson along. Even epic tales of death, disease, despair, and war require the female touch.

New Mexico is outrageous, mysterious, weird, funny, aggravating, and a vital part of our world. Latham goes where no tourist dares and says what no C of C suit dares whisper. His newsman's eye and artistic soul create a work of highway and waterway art that traps the soul of the state in a sculpture of words. Like his quest for a good cup of coffee, the search goes on to define this place. All the fun is in the journey. . .or reading about it.

I live in San Diego, and I pass Balboa Park every day on the way to and from work. I bought 2 copies: one for a fiend who visits us here and enjoys the park, and the other for us. The architecture is amazing, and this book contains some historical photos and a plethora of information about the park and its history. If you have ever visited Balboa Park and long to see it again, this would be the book I would suggest.