Roads and Highways Books

Where else can you learn how they made those cinnamon rolls, chicken-fried steak, greasy hamburgers, chili and chocolate pie? This book is history! And there real jewels, too -- roast duck, chicken and shrimp curry -- that are delicious and easy. This is a useful, real cookbook full of wonderful road stories. A wonderful book!

The book has a great new introduction with additional stories and recipes. Makes for memorable reading about cafes, diners and other eateries that were once on the road and others that are on 66 today. Recipes work!

Every Route 66 traveler has memories - this book delighted me with stories of places I have stopped, dishes from the 50s, and great memories from waitresses, owners, customers, and home-town folks who talked about Route 66 eateries that are gone as well as food stops still open today. The recipes are reminiscent of the 50s although some come from the whole 66 era. Every time I drive the road there are changes. The author points this out and some of the people she interviewed are now deceased - but I'm glad their memories were saved - bet they were glad to reminisce. I found the book a delight! Glad Clark is a fellow Oklahoman.

I began this book reading it as though it were a novel--devouring every word. I have driven Route 66 some, have several books about it, and enjoy the lore and history. And I love reading about food of all kinds, as well as cooking. Marian Clark has certainly done a lot of research and included many interesting anecdotes, but I sometimes had the impression that some could have been fleshed out a little more, to advantage. A number of interesting-sounding people and places got only a sentence or two. By the half-way mark in the book, I was convinced that travelers had better be prepared to subsist on chili, pie, salad dressings, and barbecue sauces, if this is a representative cross section of what's available along the Mother Road. Recipes for these seem to make up close to half of the offerings. And by then I was merely scanning the pages.

Michael Wallis's introduction is touching and lyrically written, and a sheer pleasure to read. I'd like to have seen recipes for more of the gustatory delights that he recalls so vividly, but alas, nary an omelette, nor a single biscuit and gravy. 'WAY more than enough gooey desserts for the overweight, glucose-intolerant traveler, though.

The color photos that fill sixteen pages of this Deluxe 75th Anniversary Edition seem to be only of snapshot quality, pretty amateurish, and in my opinion the book deserves better. Some are obviously reproductions of old photos, and can't be helped. The others, though...

So, am I sorry I bought this book? Am I glad to have it in my library? No, and yes. But I'm still disappointed. There are better books on Route 66 out there, and better books on comfort food, though perhaps none that present the two together as this one does. But I have a feeling I'll be referring to those other works more often in the future than I do this one.

I originally bought the first edition of this fantastic book and had to buy the deluxe update as well. This book is truly fantastic. I spent a good part of last summer driving from Los Angeles to Missouri on old route 66 and this book was a welcome friend along the way (how many people plan trips with cookbooks in hand, I have no idea).

From the standpoint of the trip it was great to be able to find some of the same restaurants that my parents ate at 30+ years ago. The book is also full of menus, pictures and stories - and it's the stories that set the book apart. The stories about the restaurants and people along the way made the entire trip seem like visiting old friends.

The recipes are also second to none. I've tried over two dozen of the recipes and none have disapointed me so far. All of them are simple, tasty and relatively simple to make. You can't go wrong by using these recipes.

Finally, I love the changes from Chicago to Los Angeles in terms of the regional recipes offered. I've long been a fan of American regional cooking and this book, while not a "regional cookbook", shows a flair for the subtle changes in restaurant fare as you travel the mother road.

This book presents things in a practical manner. The examples in the book are incredible and can very easily be related to real life applications.

It is a great book, the only drawback is the following: it NOT written in Metric units (a.k.a. International System). I hope that the next edition use metric units.

This book goes thru a variety of traffic engineering problems, assesing solutions and explaining in an simple way many concepts and technics used in the HCM (1994/97 updates).

Very good for begginers.....

From sight distance to freeway flow characteristics to signal coordination for arterials, this is the most comprehensive textbook I've seen on traffic engineering. The topics follow a very logical progression and many examples are given throughout. This book could serve as an excellent textbook for an undergraduate or first-year graduate traffic engineering class in addition to being a must have for practitioners. One way the book could be improved is by including a more thorough presentation of loop detectors, control cabinets, and how actuated signal timing plans actually play out from cycle to cycle, specifically with regards to actuated coordinated signals along arterials. Nonetheless, I still give the book a 5.

This book presents things in a practical manner. The examples in the book are incredible and can very easily be related to real life applications.

It is a great book, the only drawback is the following: it NOT written in Metric units (a.k.a. International System). I hope that the next edition use metric units.

This book goes thru a variety of traffic engineering problems, assesing solutions and explaining in an simple way many concepts and technics used in the HCM (1994/97 updates).

Very good for begginers.....

From sight distance to freeway flow characteristics to signal coordination for arterials, this is the most comprehensive textbook I've seen on traffic engineering. The topics follow a very logical progression and many examples are given throughout. This book could serve as an excellent textbook for an undergraduate or first-year graduate traffic engineering class in addition to being a must have for practitioners. One way the book could be improved is by including a more thorough presentation of loop detectors, control cabinets, and how actuated signal timing plans actually play out from cycle to cycle, specifically with regards to actuated coordinated signals along arterials. Nonetheless, I still give the book a 5.

What th???? thoughts, fearful examination of the insanity and ecstacy of self-refective perception. disjointed. razors, withered weathered fields of obsessive compulsion

Stirrings Still is also available as Beckett Short No. 11 where it is paired with What Is the Word. Stirrings Still, a study of death and movement - constrained, absence and free, I have already reviewed. What Is the Word is a short and effective piece on aphasia as, perhaps, brought on by a stroke. Both pieces are brilliant, vintage Beckett.

This is a book I recommend only if you are interested in the experimental use of language or interested in everything Beckett.

I found I needed to read this small volume multiple times before the repeated images, the disjoint non-sentences, the crisp objectiveness of the language began to congeal into an interesting study of self-awareness. Even the first reading leaves one knowing they are in the hands of a master wordsmith. Well worth the time but certainly not for everyone.

Brouws is one of my favorite contemporary photograper and this book proves why. HIGHWAY admirably displays his subtle use of color, elegant compositional eye, and an underlying elegiac tone which he captures, often depicting an American Dream gone awry. Many of the photos seem infused with a Hopper-esque quality; many Springsteen tunes come to mind as well. The inclusion of FSA photographs from the 1930s, and the well-wriiten essays by Polster and Patton, make for a compelling product. This book is a classic and highly recommended.

Although the book does have a few nice photographs in it and the book does, in fact, catch the "American Dream gone awry," I was disappointed with the book as a whole. This is not to say that it is a bad book. The problem I had was that even though the book is 10.8" x 9.8" many of the pictures are very small. Being a member of the visual generation this book failed to satisfy me with much optical gratification. I would have preferred a book with large images that would grab my attention and bring me back to the memories of days gone by.

Brouws seems to have acquired a photographer's eye that can look behind and around and through the grime and the dust of the highway's edge, and find an unheralded harmony in the play of concrete, neon, and metal. Looking at the photographs one can recognise what was always there, but always overlooked. These are the backdrops to our highway dreams, and so it makes good sense to see these without putting people into the foreground. The essays are cogent and work well as an introduction to the photos. Buy the book, and you'll be seeing the highway in a different light from then on.

Libby Merchant is middle aged and has survived breast cancer and her partner walking out on her for a younger woman. Now, what she likes to do is get in her RV and go, just go. She is on her way to Albuquerque to join friends for a balloon festival when she decides to get off on old Route 66, "the Mother Road," and take the scenic route. She has no way of knowing when she stops for coffee at the Knight's Rest Motel and Café that she is going to meet an old college sorority sister and be drawn into a murder mystery. Libby remembers Janet Winterspoon as an attractive, wealthy, kind woman, not as the feeble stroke victim she finds wandering in the café's parking lot. When she discovers that Janet's brother Claude has died in their Winnebago, she takes it upon herself to help Janet until her family can arrive to take over. Libby will now be thrown in with a gaggle of kooky and sometimes dangerous characters, plus another murder, and she is forced to try to solve the mystery when she realizes that she's looking like a suspect. Who would want to kill two elderly people? And why?

From the picture on the back of the book, it's clear that Brenda Weathers is a follower of the RV life herself and her knowledge of this world adds rich details to her story that give it a feeling of authenticity. Libby notices little things about the Winterspoon's RV that don't make sense and add to the mystery surrounding them. It's the characters of the book though that are the best part. Libby is an aging, slightly overweight adventuress who feels the limitations of her age, but refuses to give into them. There is a scene where she has to make a run for her life that will also have the reader laughing at her thoughts about her need to diet as she's doing it. Hazel Tutt is the imposing owner of the Knight's Rest who rules with an iron hand, lives for economic opportunity and serves gourmet meals, when she feels like it. Her boyfriend Billy Ray is the trial of her life since he can't ever seem to show up for anything on time. The amazing thing is that it never occurs to him to buy a watch until Libby suggests it. There's the Winterspoon's niece Myra who loves nothing better than to crawl into a liquor bottle and then into the bed of any available male and her brother Sonny, who comes and goes as he has to indulge his gambling habit and wager away the family fortune. David DiMarco appears to be of sterling quality as he raises money to help abandoned animals, but why is he so reluctant to help the Winterspoons when he claims he was so close to them? Do any of them have a true interest that goes beyond finding the elusive Winterspoon wills? And leading them all is Sugar, the abandoned bull dog who is just looking for someone to take her in, especially if she can make it Libby.

Murder on the Mother Road is an enjoyable book to read. You won't really figure out who did what until the end of the book, which is always a plus in a mystery. In the meantime, you'll get to enjoy some interesting characters and glimpses into a different way of life. This is worth spending some time with.

Truly an enjoyable book. It was such a pleasure to read a book where the main characters looked and acted like people you see every day. No Xena, no Gabby. Libby, the main character, is not dripping in money or diamonds. She's not having hot sex. She's just trying to get to the BalloonFest in her RV. She decides a slight detour on Route 66 would be an adventure, and was it ever! This book has humor, quirky characters, the requisite murder(s) and the ensuing misunderstandings. And, it is all done with great fun.

MURDER ON THE MOTHER ROAD is Brenda Weathers' third novel. The first two are: THE HOUSE AT PELLHAM FALLS and MISS PETTIBONE AND MISS MCGRAW.

Libby is a slightly over-the-hill psychologist who is wandering the west in her brand new Airstream RV, healing from breast cancer and an insensitive mate who ditched her for greener pastures. She is on her way to a balloon festival, but gets waylaid when she stops in to the Knight's Rest Motel and Cafe to top off water levels in the RV. She comes face to face with an old college sorority sister who has fallen on hard times:

"We hadn't been all that close all those years ago. She had been a queenly senior my freshman year. But I had no doubt that this was Janet, of the Pasadena Witherspoons. We had lived on the same floor of the sorority house. My most vivid memory of Janet was her log legged stride in the hallways or across campus, a black beret pulled low on her head, a long cigarette between her fingers, a volume of Ezra Pound or Jack Kerouac under her arm."

It turns out that Janet and her brother are both murdered, and since there are only a suspicious and cruel niece and nephew around who are scheming for the family millions, Libby feels it is incumbent upon herself to look into things. The "things" turn even more suspicious even as Libby herself becomes a target for a determined and sinister murderer.

MURDER ON THE MOTHER ROAD is a down-to-earth page turner with lots of wit and humor. Libby is self-deprecating, but actually is a resourceful and clever woman who is able to get to the bottom of the self-serving crooks who seem to surround the sagging Knight's Rest Motel and Cafe. She befriends it's proprietress, Hazel Tutt, and manages some relationship counseling with Hazel and her boyfriend Billy Ray. But perhaps the most personal relationship that is formed is with a bulldog named Sugar who is just looking for a good home. MURDER ON THE MOTHER ROAD is entertaining, funny, touching, and is a great read. Brenda Weathers really knows how to put together a good tale!

Shelley Glodowski
Senior Reviewer

WONDERFULLY WRITTEN, WELL ILLUSTRATED; AUTHORITATIVE. A MUST HAVE FOR ANY TRAVELER, ROADSIDE AMERICANA REVELER, TRANSPORTATION HISTORY ENTHUSIAST, OR ANYONE INTERESTED IN THE HISTORY OF THE GREAT AMERICAN SOUTHWEST!! (ADDITIONAL NOTE SHOULD BE MADE HERE; AMAZON IS CREDITING THE WORK TO JERRY JACKA; THE AUTHOR IS ERIC J. FINLEY)

I went over this entire route on a trip with my family when I was 13 in 1965. One marvels at the variety of landscapes that it covers, and the historical associations it is connected with. From the long stretch between Phoenix and Yuma (which is reminiscent of the terrain seen in the chase in the film THELMA AND LOUISE), past the former prison town and now thriving desert community of Yuma, along the desert route of the old plank road between Yuma and El Centro (some of the planks survive to this day), through the agricultural oasis of the Imperial Valley, going up over the Laguna Mountains and the San Diego backcountry, recently scarred by fire but still a great asset to this area), and finally winding down into San Diego proper, this highway covers every conceivable terrain. A valuable book for those who love the highways and byways of America.

I only discovered this book when I was past the half-way point of the very drive it describes. It added immensely to the remainder of the west bound drive and I used it to locate a couple of missed sites on the way back. US 80 doesn't have the current popularity of Route 66 or the Lincoln Highway but, as the "All-Year Southern Route" for "Coast-to-Coast" travel in the early days of the automobile, it was once one of the more important roadways in America. This is a great "roadie" book with plenty of history, sightseeing tips, and those details that help you put together your own two-lane experience. It is well written and illustrated and would probably make good reading for the arm chair traveler but it's real place is in the glove compartment.

Practical and Understandable. Don Alexander has some kind of gift for making all of this stuff make sense. He explains what each suspension component does and how changing it will affect the car. The information is applicable to designing your own suspension from the ground up as well as modifying the car you have. He includes examples of cars he has tuned with good before-and-after comparisons. Common misconceptions are dispelled with logic and evidence, giving you exactly the information you need to make important decisions about your car.

Mr. Alexander provides a complete and concise overview of vehicle handling. Technical theory is explaned in a easy to read manner. Through the use of project cars he is able to provide examples that would be applicable to anyone. A troubleshooting guide is also provided to correct observed problems. A first rate book.

I had no knowledge of how a suspension works or its parts until I read this book. Descriptions were pretty detailed and I understood them, so should you. Shocks, struts, springs, anti-sway bars, and even driving techniques. Gives you a page to help you tune your own car and examples of how you should go about this. Gave me everything I needed except a skidpad. The only downside is the fact it's a little outdated. Time to make an updated one.

This book, without a doubt, is the best reference book I have found for matters concerning horizontal and vertical geometry related to highways and railroads.

This book is an excellent reference if you are performing any type of engineering or surveying work that involves spiral or vertical curves. Though it is an older book, the collection of formulas is unsurpassed. Just ignore the pictures of '57 Chevys cruising down the highways. :)

This is an in depth reference for every aspect of horizontal and vertical geometry. Contains base theory, then all of the necessary equations for calculating sight distances, vertical curve lengths, horizontal and vertical curve obstructions. Some of the values used should be cross-referenced with values from the AASHTO Green Book, as some of the design values in the book may be out of date. Also discusses spiral curves, compund curves, unsymmetrical vertical curves. There are equations, detail narratives, and example problems in this book, that I have not seen in any other manual. An excellent companion to your Green Book, CERM, and HCM.

In period illustrations and delightful text, this book, to be read for pleasure or information, abundantly captures the romance of the open road.

Wonderfully illustrated with many photos from the era and many excerpts from journals and articles, this book will have you never complaining about modern roads again.