Travelogue Books

Be careful reading this book: it may change your life. It changed mine. The book inspired me to retrace Mr. Chase's footsteps, or should I say hoof prints. His book is such a delightful "paseo" (leisurely walk) up the stunningly beautiful California Coast that I found myself unable to resist the temptation to do it myself. Thus, there is another description of Mr. Chase's route, produced more than 82 years later, also available on Amazon. Read Mr. Chase's book. Sit back and enjoy the images and personalities of 1911 that Mr. Chase brings to life. Maybe you, too, will be inspired to take your own paseo.

Anyone who appreciates the unspoiled west and california history should find California coast trails by J.Smeaton Chase a pleasant read. Shortly after publishing his diary journals of extensive journeys throughout the Sierra Nevada mountains in Yosemite Trails, Chase embarked on his next adventure on horseback. This trip would take him from Mexico to Oregon along the coastal route of the spacely settled california. Most of the books appeal to me is Chases daily recording of intimate details such as a rare flower or a unique sunset. His daily travels often ended with a campfire on the sand with the ocean waves for a lullabuy. Chases winning personality and knowledge of California history further enhance the book along with frequent references to former events and places of historical significance. California Coast Trails is a trail guide, history book and personal travel diary all in one. You wont regret the read.

In 1910 J. Smeaton Chase and a painter, Carl Eytel, decided to go by horseback down the coast from Los Angeles. They carried their supplies, rifles for hunting, and a boundless curiosity about the landscape that even then was beginning to change. Far from wilderness, the land had a rural agrarian character. But cars were already starting to appear on the roadways and Chase foresaw the coming of an urban landscape that would replace the small Mexican and Native American pueblos and he wanted to see the land as it once was and would never be again.

The 1910 journey only lasted a few months. Highlights of it included visits to what remained of California's Missions, a day among the Torrey Pines, and exploring the table/mesa ecosystem of San Diego County. One of the leading naturalists of his day, Chase writes thoughtfully on all these topics and published scientific papers on several. But this trip only whetted his passion for a longer journey; one that would stretch from Los Angeles northward all the way to the Oregon border. And in 1911, Chase began that trip, replacing his rifle with a fly rod and small pistol.

Chase's journey through the California coastal region includes lyrical prose about both the landscape and the people who inhabited it. A passionate lover of trees, Chase went out of his way to visit Monterrey Cyprus, Santa Lucia Firs, and of course the Redwoods. Of the latter, he wrote, "They seemed to lack the individual majesty of bearing [found in Sierran Sequoias] and gain their distinction rather from the cummulative effect of their statuesque beauty..." Muir Woods, then only a few years old, was described as "the most beautiful of any preserved enclosure that I have ever seen, and the soft gray day gave them their finest aspect." A repeat visitor to Muir Woods, I find Chase's comments still hold today.

Chase was something of a Jack London socialist, a romantic heavily influenced by Rosseau. He enjoyed the company of all classes of people but like his literary mentors Henry Dana and John Muir, found his true calling in nature. But unlike today's environmentalists, Chase was not anti people and for the most part enjoyed their presence in nature. Old habitations held a special fascination for him. But he was clearly an agrarian at heart and the urban landscape that was gradually spreading along California's coastline concerned him. Writing about Morro Bay, he wistfully predicted, "This pretty place is destined, I think, to be more of note than it is now." Chase was correct, but I think he would have preferred to be wrong. If you want a glimpse of his California, by all means read California Coast Trails. It is one of the best examples of that truly American literary genre, trail literature, that has ever appeared in print.

rory mulholland's fascinating report about his iraq experiance! an impressively authentic depiction, consistently packing to read - i was absorbed and therefore highly recommend it to anyone interested in current or recent global affairs and keen on glancing behind the curtains.

The Amazon blurb for this book is thankfully quite unjust: Mulholland is obviously more than just a reporter stranded and looking for a story. He is an acute observer and a shrewd researcher and interviewer. The diary starts off at a slow pace, which worried me at first. Mulholland describes how being embedded with the US army at the start of "post-war" Iraq apparently was more quirky than wildly exciting.

But there is more than enough action to keep your interest, ranging from journalists surviving an illegal alcohol shopping trip when their armoured vehicle is attacked with an improvised roadside bomb to descriptions of the digitally controlled activities in the Sunni triangle of the 4th Infantry Division (yes, the same division that was the first off the landing craft in France on D-Day).

For once a book about Iraq that does not try to explain things. Instead, it reports individual events happening to real, every-day people, events that speak for themselves. Read it and make up your own mind about it all.

Rory Mulholland's "Camp Britney, Tikrit: The Genteel Art of
War Reporting" gives us a tour of life with the US
Army in Saddam Hussein's hometown Tikrit. In nimble
prose, Mulholland shows us the comedy of base life,
from the weird reporter cult centered around Britney
Spears to Christmas time with the GIs. Along the way,
we get glimpses of guitar-strumming born again
Christian officers, tribal sheikhs and drunken
civilian contractors. In short, absurd, cruel, funny
and heartbreaking this book is a glimpse of Iraq's
confounding, impossible to pigeonhole realities.

WG Sebald whose too early accidental death in 2001 is a much-lamented loss to the literary world he so quietly entered briefly before his demise. He is a unique writer, one whose style includes ramblings and crude snapshots of incidental places that support his strange tales. For many he is an acquired taste and only time will tell whether his honored books will withstand the test of immortality. And that fact is very much in keeping with the worldview of this enormously gifted observer of the human condition and the plight of the individual played against the backdrop of history and melancholy.

CAMPO SANTO is not a completely successful book in the manner of this highly praised novels. But the very fact that his early departure from the writing stream impacted readers to the point of wanting more justifies this aggregation of four chapters of a novel based on Corsica and multiple lectures and essays and addresses. The book opens with a fine essay by editor Sven Meyer, a timetable that introduces Sebald to readers unfamiliar with his odd life. The subsequent works are translated from the German by Sebald's longtime translator Anthea Bell. And that fact introduces one of the many odd quirks in Sebald's career: why should a man who spent the better part of his expatriation from his native Germany teaching in England write in German instead of his adopted language English?

Perhaps one reason lies in the focus of each of Sebald's works. His stories are travels and meanderings through various locations that serve as his platform for posing the question of history as memory, the unresolved restitution of Germany after WW II (a period he only knew from seeing the disastrous postwar results and reading the reflective works of other writers coping with the crossfire of guilt and sadness/remorse and anger - he was born in 1944), an the driving need to understand the role of mankind in the flux of a globe at unrest.

Reading the first four chapters of CAMPO SANTO makes us wish he had completed this novel about Corsica and the fascination with the life of Napoleon who was born there. But the saved fragments of this novel interrupted by his award-winning AUSTERLITZ are savory and contain many eloquent passages to assuage the reader longing for more.

The remaining essays and lectures are dense and more cerebral but for those Sebald addicts there is much to digest about his thoughts and philosophy. And for those readers especially this final book is a must for the library. Highly recommended. Grady Harp, May 05

Sebald fans should own this book. As it's a collection of disparate pieces, it hasn't quite the overwhelming impact of "The Rings of Saturn" or "Austerlitz," but every piece in the book rewards attention. The brief meditation on Bruce Chatwin is alone worth the price of the book.

In other words, concludes this paraphrase of Brecht, that Sebald includes in the text on the lack of German literature on the bombing of German cities, survival of mankind would be purely accidental.
Sebald was a thorough pessimist. This book is a posthumous collection of travel texts on Corsica and literary essays, mostly on German language writers, but also on Chatwin (who could hardly have been German, thinks Sebald) and Nabokov (who most decidedly wasn't either, though his categorical statement that he did not learn German in 15 years living in Berlin has been doubted).
For me, the two key texts in the collection are Campo Santo and the one about the description of destruction. In addition there are essays on Handke's Kaspar Hauser (maybe you know Herzog's movie about this odd story; Handke is not my favorite writer, nor Herzog my favorite film maker; frankly speaking Sebald had little to say about them either); on Grass's and Hildesheimer's look back on the 3rd Reich; on Peter Weiss, the man who brought the Auschwitz trials to the stage (incidentally my selected writer for my Abitur exam, centuries ago); on Jean Amery, a victim; on Kafka with a nice little piece on his trip to Paris incl. an unappetizing visit to a bordello; on Nabokov, who explored the darkness on both ends of our lives and who saw butterflies as a subspecies of ghosts.
Campo Santo, the text that gave its title to the collection, is about the history and sociology of funerals in Corsica, with reference to the anthropological literature of the globe, and its lore of death and ghosts on this island, where Christianity has a hard time against the challenge of traditional superstitions. On a global scale, the megalopolis has no space for keeping the dead intact, they must move to cyberspace.
The main literary essay covers the strange fact that there was very little descriptive literature covering the destruction of German cities by bombing raids. Sole exception in the early years was Nossack's Untergang. What was written was generally drowned in mythical ruminations, as if the language of the fascist code had invaded the secret style of the 'inner emigration' and made it involuntarily identical. The debris of destruction are buried under the debris of a ruined culture. In the early years after the war, there was also no enquiry into the reason of the destruction; it was accepted like a destiny, a final judgment. However, more and more the blanket bombing of German cities during WW2 is seen as having been useless for the final victory, as useless as the blanket bombing of Vietnam later on.

This is a tremendously well-researched, well written and compelling history of the one of the most important regions in America.

The Catskill Mountains are an ecological, economic and cultural region in southeastern New York State, some four million acres in size, stretching west from the Hudson River.

In his sweeping history of the region, Alf Evers, a historian and life-long native of the region, touches on every aspect of the Catskills, including its legends, lore and superstitions. This book has it all - from the Hardenbergh Patent, which continues to haunt the region to this day, to the Hudson River School of art and the Catskill Mountain House.

Alf Evers "The Catskills" is a work of art and of all the many great books he has published on the region, this is his best and most important.

In 1998 and 1999, I spent many of my free weekends in the Catskill Mountains (not too far from where I live), frantically climbing the 35 peaks required for membership in the Catskill Mountain 3500 Club.

As I did, I became more and more interested in the story behind the mystical woods I had become so irrevocably attached to. I learned of this book. I could not find it, but everyone said it was the book to read, referenced in any other book about the region I could find.

Finally I did (not through amazon, but what the hell ...).

I could not put it down - what I had traipsed through came alive on the page, yet many years ago in time.

But you needn't have earned this appreciation to enjoy this book.

Evers, still going strong in his late nineties as the Town of Woodstock historian (I talked to him on the phone once) draws on his extensive training in folklore to make these mountains, America's first wilderness, come alive not just through the lives and works of its rich and powerful but most importantly in the voices of the humble people of the region - the farmers and settlers who in many cases left little to show for their efforts but their names on some feature of land somewhere.

Nor is he dry ... events, whether legendary or factual, that took place centuries ago, like Peter Delabigarre's first recorded ascent of what is now known as Kaaterskill High Peak, or the Anti-Rent War's bloody climax, are related as freshly as if Evers were an eyewitness.

His history also avoids any inadvertent tendency to center on one area and pass it off for the whole Catskill region. He tells the stories of Woodstock well but when he needs to go to Delaware or Sullivan counties, he does, without a hint of ignorance.

And his love for the region ... in his words one can, if one has been there, place oneself amidst the fragrant balsam fir of a high summit, a place like a dream one can always return to no matter the weather or season; athwart a rippling tributary, its clear, trout-friendly waters headed for the taps of New York City, the water John Burroughs said you could live on for a few days. If you haven't experienced those things, he'll make you want to.

So many of these stories - Burroughs' trampings, the construction of Ashokan reservoir, the framing of the Hardenburgh patent, Guyot's surveys - are alone worth the price of admission. You may know them already, but you'll learn so much more.

My only complaint would be the last chapter, an attempt to bring the story into the late 1970s with the Temporary Commission. While this is long on facts, it betrays haste in keeping the book up to date. It lacks the semi-mythical yet assured quality of the rest of the narrative.

But, if your pulse quickens at the mention of placenames like Phoenicia, West Kill, Neversink or Shinhopple; if you have ever braved the spruce ramparts of Rocky Mountain or trudged through snow in waders to cast the Junction Pool's first fly of the season, you will find your ample knowledge of the Catskills amplified a thousandfold.

I purchased this book in 1973 for my Father, who was born and raised in Kingston, New York.

Evers' book is a masterpiece-a popularized history of the Catskills, from the days of the Hardenburgh Patent(early 1700s) up to the time of Woodstock(1969 and immediately after). It is a history which presents the facts, but never loses touch with the human dimension.

It is also serious enough to present the facts as hemlock trees, quarries and other resources were successively pillaged without the slightest concern for the future. This was the world of my Father's childhood and that of my parents, grandparents and great grandparents.

It is a wonderful book and generously illustrated. It helped both my Father and I to develop a coherent picture of our family past. We were able to bridge the gaps between disconnected names, places and events.

I must give this book my highest personal recommendation.

I have been meaning to write a review of this particular book for a few years now. This book was recommended by a friend. At first I was first skeptical if I would like the book. You see the monsoons bring mixed feelings for me. Growing up in India, you either like the monsoons, or you learn to live with it. I belonged to the second category, and was never fond of the monsoons, because it meant wading through water logged streets, and the general disruption that accompanied the monsoon season. But, what I liked about the monsoons was an opportunity to sit at home and drink endless cups of tea, and eat hot samosas and pakoras.
So, it was with some misgivings that I started reading the book, and I was hooked within the first few pages. Alexander Frater does an excellent job of explaining all about the monsoons, and the methodical way in which the weather department in India follows the path of the monsoon. Some of them sound almost loving when the track the progress of the monsoon that starts from the South and travels up North, hits the Himalayas, and retreats back via the South, and showers the Southern state of Tamil Nadu. Chirapunjee in North Eastern India is supposed to receive the heaviest rainfall in the world, a fact that many school children in India will recite dutifully when questioned. But, due to the changing weather and climate conditions the rains have not been heavy of late in this area.

Frater tracks the journey of the monsoon faithfully, and tries to race ahead of the monsoon's next port of calling. Frater literally chases the monsoon, and presents an absorbing, and interesting account of his mission. He spends a couple of months doing this, and travels all over in India, including Chirapunjee. Frater has an amazing eye for detail, and is able to capture the naunces of interacting with the Indian bureaucrats, and others that he interacted while chasing the monsoon.

This is one of the best written books about an imporatant and integral part of India, the monsoons, upon which so many people depend. A good monsoon season spells bountfiful harvest, and a bad monsoon spells disaster. The monsoons still control the fortunes of Indian economy, and it is amazing that no one before Frater thought about writing a book on this subject.

I stumbled across this book at the 75% off sale at my university's bookstore; being an Indiophile I purchased it. This book has been hiking, camping & airborne with me. Frater's style is inviting and enveloping. While reading I slip beyond the words to that magical point in which my eyes no longer 'read' and I am there with Frater traveling up the coast of India to meet the rushing Monsoon at its next arrival.
If you are a lover of travelogues I highly recommend this book to you.

I never liked India. Too much confusion, too much humanity. I read this book and now I have an unending desire to visit India; top to bottom. Not during Monsoon, not during the dry season, but sometime in between. Mr. Frater delivers an unblinking look at the beauty and inspiration which lies beneath the clutter and dreck. Damn the weather, look at what's there. I envy you the experience of the first read.

Another great title by this same author is Yard Full of Sun: The Story of a Gardener's Obsession That Got a Little Out of Hand. Just as entertaining as Chasing Wildflowers!Yard Full of Sun: The Story of a Gardener's Obsession That Got a Little Out of Hand

In "Chasing Wildflowers: A Mad Search For Wild Gardens", author and horticulture enthusiast Scott Calhoun celebrates the beauty of wildflowers in natural settings that range from Utah, Colorado, Texas, and New Mexico, to Arizona, California, and Sonora, Mexico. Profusely illustrated throughout with 69 color photographs, "Chasing Wildflowers" is part travelogue and part nature study, all presented with the author heading each chapter with the date of that particular trip, its destination, the total trip time, the vehicle use, the round-trip distance from his home-base of Tucson, his traveling companion, and even the music enjoyed along the way. Unique, unusual, and superbly written, "Chasing Wildflowers" is highly entertaining, informative, and recommended for personal and community library collections -- and the next best thing to traveling to these various destinations in person!

I haven't laughed so much in a long time...perhaps I am easily amused.
I also have been to all the places Calhoun writes about and it's great to know there are other people enjoying the plants as much as I. I would love to show this guy some of my favorite plant places and see his take.
A lovely (and funny) book.

Why does one travel? For many, the answer to this seemingly simple question can be quite one dimensional. Until I read "Chicken Soup for the Travelers Soul" my answer might have been to see new places, to try new cuisine, to get away from work or to escape my everyday existence. After many years and many miles around the globe, it took this book to truly help me understand what drives the human race to really go to the ends of the earth and why, despite the troubles of travel, we keep doing it.

This is an excellent read for both the novice and experience travelers. As a novice, it can help a person gain a greater understanding as to why it is important to see new places, experience different cultures and gain greater understanding of the world we live in. As a seasoned professional in the world of travel, this book can open your eyes and help you see the world through a whole new set of eyes.

After reading this book, you may actually enjoy travel. If you are one of those people that don't really appreciate traveling, this book give you some insight into the world of travel that you yourself may have overlooked.

This is a wonderful addition to the Chicken Soup for the Soul series. One of my favorite stories is A Visit With My Parents. It is about a Peace Corps Volunteer living in the Philippines. The parents of the young woman seemed to have a greater appreciation of life. They also gained a broader perspective as well simply after experiencing how hard a Flipino family worked doing daily manual labor. They also experienced how this family lived with no electricity, plumbing, or beds which was an eye opener for them.

I was also touched by the story Road to Reconcilliation. This is a touching story about a man who lost his leg in the Vietnam War. This man had such bitterness toward his loss until he met a Vietnamese man in a sporting event for veterans. Tran Van Son lost not only his leg but also and his entire family. These two men become fast friends and eventually run the New York Marathon together.

I was touched by the story The Nicholas Effect. This is the story about a young boy who dies in a car accident. The majority of his organs were donated giving life to numerous people. I loved the story Earning My Wings. It is about a compassionate flight attendant who assists a young woman with a baby with clothes and food during a flight. Another story that sticks out in my mind is A Fair Price. This is a wonderful story about how an American college student working in Kenya building classrooms encourages an African man to tell his wife that he loves her for the first time.

Every story in this book is so touching and inspiring. I learned a lot about different places by reading. Chicken Soup for the Traveller's Soul is a winner.

Very well written, and fascinating. The author gives the reader an 'insider' view of the circus world; this includes an objective and respectful portrayal of the brave and talented people. I appreciated the honest perspectives, i.e., hearing 'the other side of the story' in terms of animal rights. It is a beautiful, touching, absolutely fantastic story.

I thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of this book, from the subject matter to the personality of the author to the quality of the writing, which is excellent. At times, it reads as luridly and poetically as a novel. If you are enamored of the circus, as I am, and would like to run away with one for a while--even if only in your imagination--this is the book for you.

For a month in spring 1997, Wilkins traveled with the Great Wallenda Circus, a gritty group of seasoned circus vets, on a trip through a remote stretch of Canada. Facing such obstacles as unyielding immigration regulations (for both animals and performers), unprecedented flooding with unseasonable temperatures, and fierce competition from another circus, the Wallenda performers (led by Karl's grandson, Ricky Wallenda) show their merit as troupers in the truest sense of the word. Interspersed with descriptions of the circus's performances in the often-chilly and poorly lit hockey venues of Manitoba are the stories of the circus's performers and crew, each of which reveals a different facet of the daily dangers of circus life: unpredictable (and sometimes in-bred) tigers, vendetta-holding elephants, unstable rigging for aerial acts, and the omnipresent fatigue that can make a performer misstep minutely, but fatally. Beyond these dangers, however, is another threat to the circus's performers, which Wilkins chronicles beautifully and movingly: the decline and fall of the circus in America. It's a casualty with complex causation, including the senescence of Shriners (who sponsor a large number of American circus performances), the rise of the animal rights movement, and the effect of television, with its showy tromp l'oeil special effects, on our expectations for entertainment. Is watching a 370-pound man put an elderly, blind elephant through a series of slow-moving tricks enough of a thrill for audiences raised on car chases and gunfire? Wilkins thinks so, and after reading this wonderful book, so do I.

This is it for me! The ultimate guide to what is a vibrant & exciting city. She takes you through every different section of the city covering history, architecture, very up-to-date restaurants, bars & shopping addresses. Great book to own and looks fantastic on your coffee table ;)

Great book, nice presentation, nice images - really gives you a feel and a desire to get out there and see all the places listed.
Highly recommended

I by myself live in Tel Aviv, and you hardly can know all of the trendy things going on here, and this book shows them all, and in a very concise form, both visually as well as textually. I personally would have preferred to get even more pictures of the places than being printed in the book (usually a few pictures of one place), but overall every guest of this city will get with this book a clear view, and will know what to visit and where to hang out. Excellent book, highly recommended.

David,

Love your book! Congratulations! The only fault is it's so readable it's hard to put down.

Thanks for all the pictures and note about your family - they look just what I would expect.

Since traveling is what I did a great deal of, I felt right at home with your book. Travel does change one's perspective. I have hundreds and hundreds of slides of various coountries - Italy, China, Egypt, S.America, etc. - once in a while I take them out to relive my memories...

Thanks. - Jeanne Goodman

This book is folksy and riveting, and the style is of sitting around the living room and listening to the stories told. They're good stories. The author's style of writing invites you in and takes you along on a wonderful ride across the country. If you've ever wanted to see it all, this is the way to do it.

Come Travel With Me To The Other Side Of Sunset is a collection of stories of the travels that Mr. Ladewig has made to many parts of the world. It is easy to read and made me feel that I was traveling with him. In-depth interest is added by the author's active participation and enjoyment in good food, hiking, horseback riding, sailing, scenery, and photography. The book contains many excellent photographs. It also provides many helpful tips and suggestions on how to plan the various aspects of a trip. While this book covers travels to many parts of the world, favorite locations appear to be the out-of-the-way Caribbean Islands and the Canadian Rockies. This book entices me to travel to some places where I have never been, to go back to some where I have been and to dream about the rest. A very enjoyable well written and entertaining book