Vacations Books

This book is a detailed survey of the opportunities for employment and living in Italy - it covers such mundane, but essential subjects such as residence and entry regulations, property purchase and rental, tax evasion and other national pastimes, as well as how to find a job or start a business. It lets you know in confident style how, where and why to go for the Italian experience.

Unlike Travis Neighbour and Monica Larner's popular "Living, Studying and Working in Italy", this guide doesn't assume that every reader has the lifestyle and experience of the average impoverished student. Want to know how and where to get the best mortgages and loans, or understand the finer points of etiquette, language and culture? It's all here - buy it, become an expert, and above all enjoy!

This book was of very little use to me. I purchased it right after reading Travis Neighbor and Monica Larner's Living, Working, and Studying in Italy, and it was such a disappointment. It was in an awkward-to-use format, almost like some sort of government fact book. It compared aspects of life blow-by-blow to those in the UK and seemed to offer very little information that would be of use to an American relocating to Italy. If you're from the UK, it may be just what you need, but otherwise I'd steer clear.

One other thing: I noticed it's part of a very large series, which may tell you something about the impersonality of it - even more so that this author has written quite a few in the series.

This is a great series...and it says right in the description it is a cassette audiobook. Its really awful someone would give this a bad review for any reason. A lot of audiobooks are still on cassette.. unfortunate but true.

I mistakenly thought these were books and as they were intended as a Christmas present, was terribly disappointed. You can't tell by the title that they are NOT books, but rather cassette tapes. I don't think my grandaughter even owns anything that would play cassettes in this day and age! Be careful what you are ordering!

I would not recommend this book to other kids. The plot wasstupid and the haunting was lame.

I really enjoy this book. It started not good intill the part when the mom, Ms. Harrison bought a cabin up in the mountains for summer vacation. The reason the mom bought the cabin was because is son Barry and her daughter Robin was telling their mother that everybody else at school was going away for summer vacation why don't we go some where. The story got excited chapter four beacause the chapter says it. After chapter four the story got very exciting and scary as well. I will recoment this book to other people and for children that could read. I know most of the people that read this book will enjoy it as much as I did. Remember that this book starts pretty good but the end of the book is the real story. You will know what I mean at the end of the story. I hope you read this review so you could look up this book. Remember in this a mystery is only a page away!!!!!

I have to agree with the previous commenter that the book is over-wordy and just doesn't flow. However, I have to give it four stars on the grounds that any "Preston" book contains more originality, humor, and, well, zing than most other children's books. This one might interest the female Preston Pig fans, since it involves Preston's seaside friendship with a little girl pig. But please, check out the other Preston books like "Oops" "Preston's Goal" and "Suddenly", to see this little big at his best.

My son loves this story and the various perils that befall Mr Wolf. However, parents be warned! This story is very dialogue heavy and it actually quite awkward when read aloud. I was sick of it after the second reading and I am not on my thirtieth at least!

This Book was very well written. Each character was very distinct and different from one another. You have Jared the party boy and Lindsay the party girl. Then you also have Naomi. Who is very quiet and different. The overall theme of the book is about six different kids getting together to know each other and each of them learn that thier different personalities bring them together. Also they learn how to go through difficult situations together. each character gets a certian role, giving them the ablility to be able to come together. Overall the book was very good.

It was okay. nothing special that I would tell others to go read right away.

"Richard and Boo is the first book that my 12 year old son ever read all of the way through. He started many but lost interest and quit. I am a teacher and I highly recommend it." Father
There were some mechanical errors in the first edition but it has been edited. Children love it.

Howard.....you wrote an amazing book. I loved it. just wanted to tell you how much i appreciate your writing. thanks.

I did not like this book. I found the writing style to be tiresome and outdated; and the majority of the "information" to be useless. For example, who needs a 'movie list' of stale titles preferred by the author? I was looking for a book of practical, useful information and received maybe 4 pages worth in this book. The rest were useless antedotes and personal references pertaining to the author which although I'm sure were entertaining to her to see in print, was boring waste of time for me to read. You'll find my copy on Ebay.

Marylouise Oates has written "the book" on second home but in the process has filled the book with helpful hints for any home! I plan to leave my copy on the table for all my weekend guests to help them know good behavior! Her advice constantly reassured me of my own decisions on weekend entertaining and drawing the line. The book is extremely well written, funny and a must read. Hopefully the publisher will see the wisdom of a series of "Marylouise Books...". Move over Martha!

All this proves is that "ski style" is ANYTHING you want to build in a ski area. Some of the places have no "ski" feel at all.

I felt there was an unhappy overtone in 'skifanatic's review elsewhere. I guess I can remember feeling a bit like that when young and all I could do was covet. However, don't be put off. The photos in this book -- particularly the Alpine homes -- are a tribute to design, warmth, style, and beauty of traditional materials. And yes, they are also a tribute to money.
But take out the envy and you have examples of a most fabulous marriage between modern crafts and mediaeval styles, using wood, iron, glass, ceramics, cottons, furs, etc etc. Breathtaking homes -- though somewhat less so in the case of the modern-style, overly self-conscious designs.
I lived in a mountain village in the Swiss Alps for a couple of years in the 1960s, and still adore the warmth, solidity, simplicity of the homes there as well as the intracies of the wood structures, paneling and finishes. That was true even for (maybe especially for) the peasant chalets, such as those where I spent that time (skiing fanatically, I might add).
The homes in this book are a tribute to what great imagination, and great taste, based on traditional styles materials, and values can achieve. I was transported by the book and would love to own one of them -- if someone else would take on the upkeep and maintainance!!
Mr.'skifanatic' will get over his hurt one day I hope and may even get to enjoy such places -- while ignoring the fact that others possess them. We don't all have to live in the kind of crowd-accomodating ski barns that dot today's ski centers to be democratic. It is good that human achievement can reach the levels shown in this book. It keeps the crafts people up in the mountains where they surely have a place.

Again, Stephen Jones has dissapointed me. This is the third anthology I've tried by this so-called editor, and again I'm bored STIFF by what he considers "horror". The British obviously have a slower pace than us Americans!!! I bought this new in Borders and have been trying for over a month to push myself through it, just to get to the end. Horrible- don't buy this new! The stories are stale, slow and not very visceral. Most are more in the genre of Ray Bradbury, but without his quick wit and punch.

Stephen Jones's horror anthologies are always a worthwhile investment. What makes Summer Chills so fun is that it combines two of my favorite genres: horror and travel writing. This isn't that difficult as travel writing is endlessly malleable and many horror stories involve characters going to unknown lands. (After all, Bram Stoker wrote Dracula with a travel guide by his side.)

All of these stories involve travel, but not all of them are necessarily horrific. The term "horror fiction" is a bit of a misnomer in most cases; "speculative fiction" or "fiction of the macabre" would work better (Harlan Ellison's terms). As in every anthology, not all the stories will be to everyone's liking. I lost my patience with some of the stories, but perhaps that was my fault.

My favorite stories include:

"The Sun, the Sea and the Silent Scream," by Brian Lumley. This best captures the spirit of the book - a tropical vacation turned horrific. It encourages me to read more of Mr. Lumley's fiction.

"The Cave," by Basil Cooper. This is an exercise in terror by the use of understatement.

"Seeing the World," by Ramsey Campbell. Don't you just hate it when people bore you to death with their vacation pictures?

There are original stories and classics, such as "In the Hills, the Cities," by Clive Barker (has he retired or something?) In any case, this is a worthy investment for beach reading...but it is better read at night.

How can a book about great birding spots not have a single mention of South America?

Birders (a.k.a. bird watchers) can approach their hobby several ways. There's the backyard birder who enjoys feeding and otherwise attracting birds to his/her backyard. Then there's the lister, who keeps a list of species seen (whether in a time period such as a year or in a lifetime) and is always trying to see the next new bird. I feel that among listers there are several types, some who chase the rare (pronounced "lost") birds that blunder to a "migrant trap" near the birders' home, and others who'd rather travel to where the birds should be. This book is for the later group.

There are quite a few bird finding books out there, many good but perhaps none of them perfect. Some of them give detailed lists of what can be seen at each location covered. This one does not. However, that's not necessarily a strong negative because some of the lists in the other books seem to list lots of rarities. If you follow the lists blindly, you may find yourself searching for rarities rather than what is common at that locale.

This book is first and foremost a book for daydreaming. Sure, the advice is practical and you get a good idea of what to expect at each location. But the scope of the chapters range from specific sanctuaries to countries. You may end up getting practical advice about an outstanding sanctuary not terribly far from you and start day dreaming about a trip to Kenya "someday".

If you are a bird watcher who likes to travel, you will probably enjoy this book very much. In fact, you don't need to be an expert birder to enjoy this book.