Vacations Books

With chapters like "Just-me-and-mom time", "traveling made triumphant", and "Husbands have summers too", this book will become an invaluable addition to your bag of tricks. It includes recipes, activities, crafts, scheduling ideas, menus, sample charts for getting housework done, and more! This book is from a Christian stand point and mentions many biblical verses, making time for devotions, and lots of Christian music and book suggestions. I've already started working on our summer plans with my 7 year old, and he is getting very excited about all the possibilities this summer holds for us. Great buy, :)

This is an awesome book with lots of tips that will make your kids smarter and better people. In addition, you will also figure out how to survive those long summers with no school!!!....

I actually bought the book as a Christmas gift for someone who loves all things Rock City. (It is a sad obsession)I sat down before I wrapped it and flipped to a random page and began reading. I could not put the book down. It was a really good story. I was not able to read the entire book, so now I have to buy a copy for myself.

My wife and I, along with our kids (23, with wife, 17, 8, and 6)(all boys) listened to it several times. We loved it! All of us! Warning: it is dangerous to listen to while driving as it hard to keep the car on the road during a belly laugh. Both stories are very funny, and you will fall in love with Miss Rosemary. Mr. Davis does a wonderful job telling the story. I'll bet his books are great, but I am now in the process of acquiring all of his works on audio just to hear him tell the stories. Well worth the money! Get the tape!

I found this book very useful. My family and I took our first vacation out of the country, and if it weren't for this book, I don't think I would have known half the things I needed to do to prepare for a trip out of the U.S. My favorite section of the book was the countdown to travel. In the countdown to travel section, it pretty much showed a timeline of things to accomplish during a certain time period before your vacation. I also appreciated the packing list; however, as my daughter pointed out, pajamas are missing from that list, so don't forget to pack them! (That is if you need them.) Lastly, I found the sample itinerary very useful in planning out how to use our time on our vacation.

This book also has recommendations on choosing a vacation appropriate to your family; different travel options; and recommendations on finding appropriate food and lodging.

All and all, I found this book to be a very useful travel tool.

After years of headaches with family vacations, I'm pleased to see such a well-written book on the topic. Vacations are so easily spoiled if they aren't planned right, but planning seems to take more time and energy than the trip itself. And when one family member decides he or she doesn't like the trip, it can ruin it for everyone. This book is definitely worth reading, especially if you've always wanted to spend more time on your vacation than you spend planning for it!

If you are going to Italy and you don't know any Italian - get this CD and listen to it before you go.

I listened to it in my car on the way to work for several days before my recent trip to Italy and it was great. 50 very useful words and excellent pronunciation. It was great learning by listening and Elisabeth Smith has a great demeanor on the audio tracks that keeps you interested in learning the language.

The words she taught I used every day I was in Italy. They helped me give a very good impression to the Italians I dealt with in train stations, bakeries, restaurants and hotels and even on the street. Just by saying a few words in Italian generated immediate empathy for me as a traveler by the Italians I met and they would then go out of their way to help me. This CD made my trip to Italy much more enjoyable.

Elisabeth did a good job pacing the teaching so it built your confidence in speaking the new Italian words. She stuck to what was practical and usable.

I highly recommend this CD to anyone traveling to Italy.

I just bought her One-Day German CD for my daughter who will be studying in Berlin in a few weeks so she can pick up a little traveler's German. I was delighted when I found Elisabeth had produced a German CD. My daughter specifically asked if she had because I had let my daughter use the One-Day Italian CD by Elisabeth and she loved it, too. And my daughter has taken 6 years of French and is much better at languages than I am.

So go out and get this CD, you'll be glad you did.

I recently purchased Teach Yourself One-Day Italian before a trip to Venice, Italy. I purchased the CD as a supplement to a 16 lessons set of Pimsleur Italian I had purchased and Michel Thomas' Deluxe Italian 8 CD set. I was very impressed with Elisabeth Smith's format and presentation. Far superior to any one CD language lesson I have come across and listened to. The CD provides exactly what it offers - 50 important words and a few sentences to help you on vacation. The format was very entertaining and instructive. It was easy and fun to listen to the CD over and over again as reinforcement of the learning process. I highly recommend this CD to anyone who wants to learn a few basic words and sentences before a trip. I was so impressed that I purchased all of Elisabeth Smith's other Teach Yourself One-Day CDs (French, German, Spanish and Greek). They all follow the same format. I always appreciate knowing a few basic words of the language of the country I am visiting. Typically, I use Pimsleur Level 1 CDs to get a basic grasp of a language and learn how to correctly pronounce the words. However, Pimsleur is costly. For those interested in just learning a few words at a great cost, you can't go wrong purchasing any of the Teach Yourself One-Day language CDs. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because she made me want to learn another 50 words right away. I would immediately purchase any CD Ms. Smith would put out that offered to teach me 100 to 300 basic words and sentences using a similar learning format. Thank you for a great product. I only hope others will purchase these little gems to keep them in circulation.

This book of plans is the best I've seen for small vacation type homes. It has a LOT of plans in the 900 - 1100 sq ft range, plus a lot of bigger ones, too. It gave me lots of good ideas on how to put together a small but spacious-feeling vacation home, with enough different plans that I could really explore the options for the size building I want to construct. I highly recommend this one.

Excellent selection of vacation and starter home plans. This book will provide many hours of planning & dreaming as well as the opportunity to make those dreams a reality.

My 8-year-old son has enjoyed this book series very much. The reading level is comfortably easy for him and he enjoys solving the mysteries. It keeps him reading and even teaches him some facts at the same time. I recommend this whole series.

This is a very good book with a nice ending. Unlike other books in this series this story surrounds a person instead of a crime. Even though this story is a little too complicated for kids six (6) and under, it overall is engrossing for others. From me, I give it four (4) stars, hey nothings perfect.

America needs more Sarah Vowell. Perhaps more importantly, I need more Sarah Vowell. I know this review won't exactly make me one of Amazon's Top Reviewers. Nevertheless, I'm just saying. Sarah Vowell, here's five stars -- for you.

I really enjoyed the first half of this book. It focused on Abraham Lincoln and took the author to some interesting places. I found it educational and entertaining, even though it isn't something that I would normally read about.

I am not that into recent American history, and that may be why I didn't enjoy the second half of the book as much. Presidents Garfield and McKinley aren't that interesting to me. I didn't think that it was any fault of the author, for she seems to really get into geeking out at historical sites, and likes things that make my eyes melt from the boredom.

I think the book is worth reading, just for the first half, and if you are interested in the other two men, you will enjoy it even more.

This book makes me want to throw my kids in the car and drive them as quickly as possible to the nearest historical memorial/museum/old graveyard/bronze plaque and giggle, tell stories, do ANYTHING other than fret over their brains turning to mush on a Webkinz/Sims diet. Assassination Vacation is not just history for a witty leftie reader. Can you imagine how someone in the future will write the history of OUR time? Do you want just the mentioning of a war in Iraq and details about the number of people who died, or do you want someone to read the part about missing weapons of mass destruction? If you're the kind of person who thinks details like missing WMD's makes the story of our time come alive, you'll really 'get' Assassination Vacation. And you might also learn to love James Garfield and his special, comfy reading chair, which is worth the price of purchase by itself. Great writing.

What a great and interesting read. This book reads like the best sort of history book, or the best sort of travel log. There is no such thing as a dry statement of facts in Vowell's world, and her particularly droll delivery leaves waffly, wishy-washy, romantic travel tales in the dust. It's particularly amazing how she can weave in the fine details of the assassins, presidents, and ephemera and make them not only interesting but pertinent. I've never read Vowell's work before but will read more now.

Sarah Vowell's very chatty and informal overview of the first three successful presidential assassinations manages to chart, in its off-kilter way, a compelling if highly selective version of American history from the Civil War to the Spanish-American War through a series of anecdotes concerning the assassinations, the presidents who were the victims, the assassins themselves, and most of all the U.S. historical events associated with these events which Vowell manages to visit with the help of her friends and family, and where she meets a charming assortment of local volunteers who become the unofficial heroes of her narrative. Even if you're well versed in Stephen Sondheim's ASSASSINS, which explores much of the same territory in a completely different manner (and which Vowell enthuses over at the very beginning of her narrative), there's still much to find new and interesting here, and Vowell's candidness about her political affiliations and enthusiasms are very refreshing.

Vowell does identify herself on the bookjacket as "a McSweeney's person," and for better or worse that is a fairly accurate self-assessment. On the plus side, the book is charming, hip, ironic, and clever. On the other, it can be a bit self-consciously twee (favoring anachronistic terms in her writing like "looky-loos" and "mosey"), it's in strong need of an editor, and Vowell seems to need to tell us constantly how many supportive and brilliant friends and relations she has. It's almost impossible to nitpick, though, about someone who can be fervent and honest about her nerdy love for American history. This is a fun book to read.

In this first book of a four book series, all the drama is made. All the drama is set to unfold in the other books. In the rest the series, I didn't think it would get so juicy, all the drama, but it did. And by the way, the character Jamie, yeah I don't know why hailey even metioned her in this first book because she's barely around in the others. A quick good read for summer.

Summer Boys was an easy read, I finished the 214 pages in less that twenty-four hours, and I am not quite sure if that is a good thing or a bad one. I won't lie and say the teenaged characters in the book do not act like teenagers in real life because they do. I sit next to these kinds of kids in my classes, in both high school and even middle school. Smoking, drinking, fashion, and sex is pretty much apart of teen culture now. Not all teens do it but a good portion of them do.

The premise of the story was entertaining, the story-telling was a mixture of vague and specific detailing. The characters were almost relatable to a degree. Their statements, emotions, and actions were pretty believable and were all connected to one word. Naive. This characters were absolutely naive, which is appropriate considering the characters' ages. I only felt sympathy for two female characters, Jamie and Kelsi. In my opinion, they were the most likable female characters in the whole story including Beth. The most likable males in the story were George and Scott.

**Spoilers ahead**

Ella has to be one of the most annoyingly selfish characters I have ever encountered in a story. Seriously, you should not try and take your sister's boyfriend away, have sex with him and then confront him when he breaks up with her and then hate him as though you did nothing wrong and waltz away without a scratch!

Onto Ethan, oh Ethan. That jerk should have known better into thinking that Jamie would think they were "just friends" after them having sex and keeping in contact with each other throughout the year as though they were dating. I mean come on.

**Spoilers ended**

But aside from that, I give this book a three. I won't say I regretted paying $8.99 for this book but I will say that I probably buy another book of this series just to dig deeper into this author's work. Even though sometimes first books in series leave bad impressions, I will check out the second book of the series from the library.

Older people may not like it. But for teens the book is amazing, we love it. I used to not like to read but this one made me fall in love with reading because it relates to teenage girls like me. My friends don't like to read but I let a few girls borrow this book and now they want more and more of Hailey Abbott. It's an awesome read. I hope you would buy it.

Cute guys, gorgeous looks, hot summer days; what could be better then that?! Well for Ella and Kelsi it's not all fun and games when it comes to Ella's older sister Kelsi starts dating a hot lead guitarist named Peter, who Ella is crazy about. So when it comes down to it, it's hard to tell who will win over Peter's heart in the end.

Ella, Kelsi, Jamie, and Beth are all cousins that find love while on vacation sharing a cottage for the summer. They all experience liking guys, and at some part getting their heart broken. With only each other to rely on, they comfort each other through hard times and get through the summer, trying enjoying every minuet of it

I recommend this book to all teenage girls that like reading about drama, since there are some really good parts about girls, and their drama with their boy friends. Also, some things about this book is that it gets right to the point, never skipping any detail either. I think that they actually give you a little too much information for some parts on what the girls are doing, or thinking with their boy friends.

-Nadine B.

This Book Is Simply Amazing
it's a MUST READ!
from its first page to its last, its a real page turner.
its one of those books you can't put down.
I highly recoment this book to teenage girls who just love juicy storys
about, love, lust, friendship, and heartbreaks.
this book really keeps you on your toes.
its one of those books where u wish u were one of the girls in the book,
one can only dream about having one of those magical summers on the beach.

After reading this book I had to ask, has the author been there in the last 5 years? This book is very outdated and was an unintelligent read.

I bought the first Rita Aero book in 2000 and loved it I especially loved the website. IT was informative and good reading. SO I got itfor my trip in 2003. Well,they would not give you access to the website even though you purchased the book and they claim it makes the book invaluable right in the book. they make a huge point that this is why I should purchase this book over the others. When you try to log on you get a message that the website refuses you access. ...Well fine but don't advertize in your book the website. I will return this book and write the publisher...

This latest edition is very similar to the previous one. The writing is at points poor, and the material not presented in an engaging manner. The maps I found overly simplistic, and the promised web site access has no updates now and is often impossible to reach.

I recommend: "Passporter Walt Disney World: The Unique Travel Guide, Planner, Organizer, Journal, and Keepsake!" "The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World 2003" "Birnbaum's Walt Disney World"

As with any reference book, you usually have to have more than one to get the full picture. The book was very helpful on my last trip and was a great supplement to my Passporter book. I found the ratings to be helpful and informative. The author seemed to give an informed opinion but always left the final decision to the reader. Will be going to Disney again next year and if a new edition of this book comes out I will definetely buy another one along with my Passporter guide book of course.

I found the information in this guide dated and disappointing, presented in a very bland style. A much better choice, presented in a very easy-to-use format,is: Passporter Walt Disney World Resort 2003: The Unique Travel Guide, Planner, Organizer, Journal, and Keepsake

A new edition is due by Fall of 2008, and is needed. This remains a VERY useful guide for first-time cruisers; for those with several cruises under their belt [given the amount of food on a cruise ship, this may be a double entendre] this little book is probably of minimal use.

The gist of this book is: "Have a good time, no matter what. Avoid bugging the staff, your problem's not that big." Very little in the way of stuff which could enhance your cruise or keep you out of trouble.

I am returning this item.
Its a small little book with just general information nothing specific or insightfull.

Having never taken a cruise, I found this book very imformative, answered many questions I had. Would recomend this book to any first time cruiser.

A waste of money and a big disappointment. There were no "insider" tips offered. A very general overview of cruising. There is far more good information available from internet cruising blogs. Anyone want to buy a slightly used book?