Travel Books

This is one of the most inspirational books I have ever read--in part b/c it was not written to be that. Bill Hancock's message is so simple...appreciate life. Appreciate the good times because they are good. Appreciate the bad times, because they alone can help you realize the good, and both are part of who you are. He should be commended for his tenacity to stay the course, both his journey in life and cross country biking!! I wish I could thank him in person for sharing his story.

I originally bought this book for friends who lost their 16 year old son in an accident. This last year I bought it for myself and read it. If you have recently suffered the loss of a loved one it is very difficult to get through the first chapter where the author details the loss of his son and the immediate reactions of the family and friends. After the first chapter the book moves into the difficult ups and downs of getting on with every day life with while being gripped by overwhelming grief. There are so many places in this book where the author is able to put incredible perspective on what most people would consider ordinary events. Whether you've suffered the loss of a loved one or not, you will read this book and look at people and things differently than you did before. I hope that I am a better friend to people who suffered a loss because of the understanding this book gives the reader. I found myself disappointed as I was nearing the end, because the book was so well written that I wanted to keep on going with Bill Hancock beyond his cross country bike ride. I "googled" the author and contacted him by e-mail to tell him why I had bought 2 copies of the book and how much it meant to me after reading it. He responded the next day with a very thoughtful e-mail. I highly recommend reading Riding With the Blue Moth by Bill Hancock.

Ooops; that is the title of another book out there; but it's still true and I think this is a fairly good book to accompany the book by Lance Armstrong which details Lance's fight with cancer. Both of these fellows having to deal with tragic situations.

The author goes through my home town; so I was fairly bent on not giving him 5 stars just because he did that in his journey from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic; but I am a cyclist; and I came to think after reading it, this is rather darn good; although, just like some characters that Bill describes, I've gone through some hardship, to the point that it was not easy to concentrate and read this; but I did.

March Madness; the NCAA tournament also, is underway as I write this for the year 2007; you know, it is in a tiny bit of a way a basketball book, seeing how Hancock is involved and connected with the NCAA; and it's things like that, that make this a good book to read. Now, I say this, because I believe the basketball fan could well find this entertaining too; but of course, not a basketball book like say, for example; the book "Pistol" that is currently in the stores.

But I'll keep this short and to the point; I like Dean Karnazes book, The UltraMarathon Man; but I read that and think, I wish Dean gave out more info on his running, diet, etc.

Bill Hancock for some reason, gives a lot of detail, the basic facts of his road trip on a daily basis; I mean saying part of his diet was on any given day, "17 Fritos or 12 Cheezits, 2 gallons of water and a gallon of gatorade" is detail I've never seen anyone relate about before; some of the chapters even has a bit of a question and answer session via email where Bill is asked questions and he gives back answers about his trip. So, it definitely has a real diary quality about it and it is the attention to detail that makes me give it the high ranking; cycling detail but of course the book is much more.

A solid enough book, I like his descriptions of many geographic locales; such as Yarnell hill; I had to look up that mountain on the internet I was so curious; or the Wichita Mountains of Oklahoma.

Glad to see the positive reviews for this book; but most of them are rather short to gather people's impressions. I decided to make mine a bit longer. A fine contribution to cycling literature.

I felt like I was along for the ride with Bill Hancock in "Riding With the Blue Moth", experiencing the emotional highs and lows, chuckling at the amusing experiences he had along the way, and shedding more than a few tears. Nothing strikes fear into the heart of a parent more than the prospect of losing a child. The Hancocks experienced every parent's nightmare and the healing of the cross-country bicycle ride was great both for the reader and, I suspect, for the author as well. I highly recommend this book to anyone, but especially to anyone who has lost an offspring or is close to someone who has.

I've been reading this book at night for a week now. I shed tears nearly every night, and find myself at the bedside of one or both of my kids thanking God for the privilege I have of being their Dad. This book has almost become a devotional for me. The depth of the writing is stunning.... My prayers are with you Bill and Nicki. Thank you for letting us glimpse enough of your pain so that we can better treasure all that it means to Live.

This is for anyone who has ever fallen in love with this wonderful city, that is any who has ever, however briefly, been there.

The format is, as it is for all the "Then and Now" series to show vintage photographs paired with modern shots of the same view. The captions describe the scenes, giving short historical backgrounds. Anyone who has ever spent any time in the city will recognize some of the modern views and will probably find themselves interested in the vintage shots giving the history of the scene. Those who are planning a return visit just might want to slip this slim book into their luggage to take sightseeing. It also just might make a welcome reference for anyone reading about the old days in the City or watching an old film set there.

Lovely to look at and reasonably informative. Will be most enjoyed by fans of San Francisco. I can't see midwesterners enjoying this book. But if you live in or have visited the city by the bay this may be the book for you.

I received the book as a gift vut I would gladly paid for it.

This book is wonderful. A must have whether you live in the Bay Area or have visited here. Worth every penny.

These are a great series of books, I own each of my Favorite cities in the US. Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco. It is really cool to see old pictures of the cities compared to current pictures.

I'm not using "conservative" in the current political sense, obviously. Everybody knows that John McCain has less than a snowball's chance in Gomorrah of winning in SF. I using the term conservative in its root meaning, something like "saving what was valued in the past." Preservation and conservation have the same Latin root. San Francisco has conserved more of its past than any western American city, and I could make a case, I think, for its preservation of more old-fashioned city life even than Boston or Savannah.

Except for the tiny downtown financial district, San Francisco "looks" old. The vast majority of houses, churches, and schools were built in late Victorian styles and have been lovingly restored in the same styles. Even the relatively "new" streets of the Sunset are old-fashioned now, predominantly in modest Art Deco style of the 30s and 40s. And it should be no surprise that ATT baseball park is a booking success, since it's strikingly old-style brick in construction, with a street car stop at the front gate.

San Francisco is a bastion of old-fashioned independent mom 'n pop businesses. There are thriving corner groceries and open-air once-a-week markets: independent restaurants ranging from very cheap to ultra expensive, but hardly any chain restaurants in the neighborhoods. The big chain grocery stores like Albertson's struggle to stay open in competition with locally owned stores like Andronico's, which has six stores around the whole Bay Area. There are more independent fitness centers and gyms in the neighborhoods; 24-hour fat farms are not the norm in SF. There are no malls that would be recognizable to most Americans in downtown or neighborhood San Francisco. The only malls - and very small they are by US norms - are on the suburban fringes.

Even Boston is cut up by freeways today, though the traffic is no better managed than when I lived there in the early '60s. Seattle is sliced in half by its ineeffective central freeway. San Francisco is the place that blocked freeway construction in the late '60s. Several freeways have been demolished in SF in the last ten years! Streets in SF are narrow and parking is tough, but a measure to build more parking lots was recently defeated at the polls, and any attempt to chop wider streets through SF would meet with armed resistance.

Baseball is the number one sport in SF. The fans of the football team pour in from the 'burbs to the hideous modernistic but crumbling stadium just at the edge of the city. The basketball team plays in Oakland. Any town where baseball rules has got to be considered conservative!

People in SF are conservative dressers, especially by California standards. I know women who live in LA, who carry clothes they consider drab to SF when they visit, so that they will not stick out like the inflamed rear view of a peacock's tail. One never sees "his and hers" outfits on the streets, especially not pastels. Men wear less bling per capita in SF than in Omaha. A neck chain and an open shirt would get you sneered out of polite society in SF.

Sweet old-fashioned window boxes are everywhere in SF. Street tree plantings are lovingly maintained. Open space is all-important to San Franciscans, and it's by stubborn resistance to development than SF has preserved more open space (finangling the take-over of decommissioned army, coast guard, and navy bases) than any comparably populated region of the USA. Nature is inherently conservative.

The half-mile strip of upper Haight Street, which gets the attention of the "screaming heads" on TV and radio, is not populated by San Franciscans. It's the runaway and stumble-away refuge of the discontented - the "poor abused confused missused" - of all the dysfunctional "conservative" families and communities from Modesto to Miami. They come to SF to enjoy the true conservative values of privacy, tolerance, and neighborhood friendliness.

Want a book that holds your interest? I recommend this entire series. I discovered Gunn on accident; really it was a blessing! I liked this entire series. Good wholesome values and interesting plots that intertwine with the other books.

This is a great book, and I defenitly recommend it, along with all of her other books. Karen Kingsbury is another great choice, her books make you feel very close to God.

I think I liked this book more because of the secondary characters than the main ones. It was fun to catch up with all your old friends from previous books. Also, this is the book we meet Shelly from Clouds and Jake from Waterfalls. The two main characters, Brad and Alissa, were interesting but I cared about them less than some of the other people this series has introduced us to in the past. The story of Rosie and her groom was a good addition. In some ways, I cared more about Rosie's story than Alissa's. It's a good book, but not up to this author's usual standards, in my opinion.

These books are great! These books keep you wanting to read them all over again. But, to really understand these books you really need to read the Christy Miller Series, then the Sierra Jensen Series, then read the Christy and Todd Collage Series,and THEN finally read the Glenbrooke Series. If you only read the Christy Miller Series, you won't know as much info on Christy, that relates to these other series. These books are great! You'll keep wanting to read them over and over again. ROBIN JONES GUNN YOU are the BEST writer in the WORLD! I LOVE YOUR BOOKS!-Kyley(Kimberly's daughter)

I really enjoyed this book. I love the way that all the characters in the books connect. not only do they just connect in the Glenbrooke Series, but some of the characters in this series connect with characters in the Christy Miller Series. This book is about Alissa. In the Christy Miller Series, Christy was the one who prayed with Alissa when she became a Christian. She also knew Todd, Doug and Tracey. Throughout this book Christy's name is mentioned. Brad, the guy in the story, is the brother of Lauren Phillips in book 3. This was a really good book. Another thing i like about these books is that they are Christian. This book was really good.

Jyväskylän yliopiston kirjasto palvelee päivittäin yli 4000 ja vuotuisesti yli miljoonaa asiakasta. Kokoelmissa on n. 1,5 milj. teosta ja saapuvia lehtiä n. 9000 kappaletta. Asiakkaiden käytössä ovat koti- ja ulkomaiset tietokannat sekä yli 3000 elektronista lehteä. JYK on vapaakappalekirjasto, Euroopan Unionin EDC-tallekirjasto ja toimii myös kasvatustieteiden, psykologian ja liikuntatieteiden keskuskirjastona.

Kirjaston tehtävänä on kehittyä monipuoliseksi oppimisympäristöksi ja integroida perinteiset sekä elektroniset tiedonlähteet nykyaikaiseksi tietoympäristöksi

Jyväskylän yliopiston kirjasto palvelee päivittäin yli 4000 ja vuotuisesti yli miljoonaa asiakasta. Kokoelmissa on n. 1,5 milj. teosta ja saapuvia lehtiä n. 9000 kappaletta. Asiakkaiden käytössä ovat koti- ja ulkomaiset tietokannat sekä yli 3000 elektronista lehteä. JYK on vapaakappalekirjasto, Euroopan Unionin EDC-tallekirjasto ja toimii myös kasvatustieteiden, psykologian ja liikuntatieteiden keskuskirjastona.

Kirjaston tehtävänä on kehittyä monipuoliseksi oppimisympäristöksi ja integroida perinteiset sekä elektroniset tiedonlähteet nykyaikaiseksi tietoympäristöksi

Jyväskylän yliopiston kirjasto palvelee päivittäin yli 4000 ja vuotuisesti yli miljoonaa asiakasta. Kokoelmissa on n. 1,5 milj. teosta ja saapuvia lehtiä n. 9000 kappaletta. Asiakkaiden käytössä ovat koti- ja ulkomaiset tietokannat sekä yli 3000 elektronista lehteä. JYK on vapaakappalekirjasto, Euroopan Unionin EDC-tallekirjasto ja toimii myös kasvatustieteiden, psykologian ja liikuntatieteiden keskuskirjastona.

Kirjaston tehtävänä on kehittyä monipuoliseksi oppimisympäristöksi ja integroida perinteiset sekä elektroniset tiedonlähteet nykyaikaiseksi tietoympäristöksi

Jyväskylän yliopiston kirjasto palvelee päivittäin yli 4000 ja vuotuisesti yli miljoonaa asiakasta. Kokoelmissa on n. 1,5 milj. teosta ja saapuvia lehtiä n. 9000 kappaletta. Asiakkaiden käytössä ovat koti- ja ulkomaiset tietokannat sekä yli 3000 elektronista lehteä. JYK on vapaakappalekirjasto, Euroopan Unionin EDC-tallekirjasto ja toimii myös kasvatustieteiden, psykologian ja liikuntatieteiden keskuskirjastona.

Kirjaston tehtävänä on kehittyä monipuoliseksi oppimisympäristöksi ja integroida perinteiset sekä elektroniset tiedonlähteet nykyaikaiseksi tietoympäristöksi

Jyväskylän yliopiston kirjasto palvelee päivittäin yli 4000 ja vuotuisesti yli miljoonaa asiakasta. Kokoelmissa on n. 1,5 milj. teosta ja saapuvia lehtiä n. 9000 kappaletta. Asiakkaiden käytössä ovat koti- ja ulkomaiset tietokannat sekä yli 3000 elektronista lehteä. JYK on vapaakappalekirjasto, Euroopan Unionin EDC-tallekirjasto ja toimii myös kasvatustieteiden, psykologian ja liikuntatieteiden keskuskirjastona.

Kirjaston tehtävänä on kehittyä monipuoliseksi oppimisympäristöksi ja integroida perinteiset sekä elektroniset tiedonlähteet nykyaikaiseksi tietoympäristöksi

i read this cover to cover in one sitting- great anecdotes, tips, philosophies, photos, wine info, and recipes.
tom's book is as good as his restaurants. i LOVE this book.

Now I may be biased because I live in Seattle but there is not a recipe in this book which is not simply perfect. I have tried about 10 recipes including the crab cakes, blueberry coffee cake, Short Ribs with Rosemary white beans and the Lobster and Shiitake Potstickers and not had a bad one yet.

All the recipies are pretty easy to make, use simple fresh ingredients and usually recommend a wine to pair with it. These are not always the types of recipes that you want to whip up in 10 mins when you get home from work but for a weekend dinner where you have 1/2 hr or more to cook, you will be well rewarded. There is definitely a seafood bias for this which is fine with me. In the middle of the book are about 10 pages of pictures of many of the dishes.

I have lots of cookbooks with several good recipes but never one with so many winners and absolutely no losers. I have been to 2 of Tom's restaurants in Seattle but this makes me want to cook at home.

It has taken me awhile to write a review for this book due to the fact that I have been testing as many recipes as possible and while in Seattle compared the restaurant version with the home version. The verdict is: Get the book.

The recipes are very easily done in a standard home kitchen and they are the recipes of the restaurants in question. If there is a flavor difference it is easily explained by the author such as, the restaurant version of the salmon rub uses smoked paprike (very hard to get) while the home uses the sweet variety.

The book reflects a deep love of Seattle and is informative in a chatty way. I think though, for the Asian food information sections you may want a little more depth with Bruce Cost's book on Asian ingredients. For the experienced cook this is a great book to have on the shelf showing a fusion of traditional and international influences in the menu.

For those looking for soemthing in between a beginner's and a hardcore pro level this book is excellent. People at my various parties and catering gigs have loved the food prepared from this book and it has achieved the status of favorite on the shelf. It is approachable in tone, style and technique. It is also helpful that he provides a supplier section for those hard to get items like kazu.

The fish section maybe a no go for some people due to freshness issues but the section on grilling/barbecuing is nice and the dry brine method for roast chicken was very reliable. All the side dishes were easily done as well with a standard grocery store available.

Recommended highly and I look forward to his next work.

This was a gift to my husband, but has only been opened twice. The recipes look somewhat interesting, but the ingredients are not generally available to most areas. It would be helpful in a coastal area where FRESH seafood was more readily available AND was more cost-effective to use. We are intrigued by some entrees, but again, most are not user-friendly (or kid- friendly) which is important in our busy home! I good gift for the hobby gourmet, not useful in everyday life...at least not in our busy (and filled with picky kids) home!

I have owned my copy of Seattle Kitchen for over a year now, as do two of the other families on our block. We regularly get together for dinner parties and inevitably, one of Tom Douglas' dishes shows up on the menu. Although many if not most of the recipes are time-consuming (much chopping, sauteeing, carmelizing, etc. is involved) they are all worth it in the end as long as you are a patient person who enjoys cooking. This is not a good beginner's cookbook! The sweet butternut soup with thyme creme fraiche is beyond compare and I make it all fall and winter long. The lobster and shrimp potstickers with sake sauce take a long time to make but are simply divine (I have learned to make huge batches and freeze them for later when I need an appetizer.) Pair them with the sweet-and-sour red cabbage for an impressive presentation. I just made Etta's cornbread pudding last night for the first time after visiting Seattle and eating it at the restaurant a few weeks ago, and I have to say mine was just as good if not better since it was fresh out of the oven. It was inhaled at the dinner party and it prompted me to get online now to order Tom's other cookbook. I find that sometimes the ingredients are difficult to hunt down here in Montana, but I usually find most of what I need, or at least an acceptable substitute. I just wish there were more photographs of the beautiful food. I look forward to trying many more of Tom's recipes.

Rita's book is the best guide book written to date. We found it very informative and the coupons in the back were wonderful! We used most of them. The maps were extremelty helpful! We copied them and handed them out to all our family members. We have been going to WDW twice a year for seven or eight years, and have purchased many books, this book is outstanding!

After being disappointed by other guidebooks, I finally bought Aero's book and was amazed by the wealth of planning insight. This book is nothing short of empowerment for family vacation planning. For the first time we enjoyed a vacation where we all equally loved the hotel, restaurants, and rides. This book is a vacation saver.

We thought this guide book the best of the bunch - it is well laid out and easy to read with great maps of every area in the 'World'. Best of all, buying it enables you to access Rita's great Website, which is chock full of up-to-the-minute, detailed tips and trip reports as well as updates on attractions and happenings at WDW. A great plus!!

Having been to WDW several times, and always purchasing a guidebook before leaving to get recent updates, I came upon Rita Aeros book, Walt Disney World for Adults by accident. I initially purchased the book for the coupon values and was disappointed when discovering they were no longer valid. I intended to return the book after discovering the expiration of the coupons but decided to check out the website before I did. This was the BEST decision I could have made. Not only did I keep the book and read it thoroughly, but I have discovered a wealth of information on her web site. It is truly the most informative, user friendly web site you could possibly find anywhere. I have already saved hundreds of dollars using the information I have gleaned. This book and its accompanying web site are unsurpassed for value. Rita Aero's book has done a marvelous job in breaking down all the different areas of WDW (hotels, transportation, restaurants, theme parks, etc.). with honest evaluations, in an easy to read and comprehensive style.

This is the book that has it all. Resorts, Restaurants, Parks, Attractions, Night Clubs, Sports, Kids, Family, Groups, Discounts, Charts, Ratings, Reviews, Tips, Tricks, Secrets, etc, etc.

The information in this edition is still fresher and more accurate than any 1999 guidebook, and I should know, I visit WDW at least four times per year. Other guidebooks are just repackaged every year with a new cover.

Note: I found the Animal Kingdom chapter in this edition to be a bit weak, but I found marvelous AK information on the book's website.

This is the only book to have ever included useful coupons, but they expired recently. The book's website has lots of good electronic coupons in the Readers' Clubhouse. The clubhouse has excellent information and wonderful community! I saved $768 last trip. NO other guidebook (and I have them all) can match the quality of Rita Aero's work, and no other major guidebook has a website or a supporting author. This one is a MUST HAVE!

Thanks for the magical vacations, Rita!

Anne Morrow Lindbergh: First Lady of the Air by Kathleen C. Winters is a beautifully written biography of the wife of Charles Lindbergh, the world famous pilot. She also was a pilot, one of the early female pilots, and was co-pilot and navigator for her husband, who could have chosen any other for important job. Anne has been revered as an author for years for her well-loved books, the most famous being the timeless Gift From The Sea, still a best seller after over half a century. But her life as a pilot and a pioneer in aviation history had not been explored, and Winters does a fine job with this part of Anne's early life, which she left behind when she became a mother. The new biography is excellent and sure to become a mainstay of aviation history.

I am not a typical non-fiction reader, but after reading the book, First Lady of the Air, I could see myself reading more non-fiction. Kathleen Winters creates an easy to read non-fiction account of the life of Anne Morrow Lindbergh. Throughout the book, I could really identify with Anne as a woman and fellow aviator. Winters portrays many sides of Anne, from her days as a young woman, to a woman aviator, and finally to a wife and mother. She makes it easy for any reader to identify with the struggles that Anne faced in each of those times in her life.

Winters describes the historical significance of what Anne and Charles were accomplishing with their many long distance flights in uncharted areas; setting up air routes and paving the way for what future commercial jet liners would utilize on a daily basis. Anne was an active participant in an adventurous situation, which was not typical for women of her time. Very inspirational story showing that women can do the same things that men can do. A good read for anyone interested in aviation history.

This book is a gem. Well written. Informative. It is Anne's story -- the woman who loved to fly and who often was the first to explore some new phase. Because she is such an ethereal writer -- and because she was Charles' wife -- we tend to lose track of her actual aviation accomplishments. Author Kathleen C. Winters has nicely remedied that. Originally in hardback, the book is due out in paperback spring 2008.

Sarah Byrn Rickman, author of the newly released Nancy Love and the WASP Ferry Pilots of World War II (University of North Texas Press).

I thought Anne Morrow Lindbergh-First Lady of the Air was going to be a historical documentary, which would have been interesting. It was much, much more. It is exciting reading that covers the gamut from insight into the personal life of an aviation icon to a unique look into the early days of the flying machines. Kathleen Winters' writing style made me feel like I knew the Lindbergh family personally. Her research is impeccable. I was awed by the challenges of mixing high society and celebrity with the rigors of exploratory flying. We all know about Charles Lindbergh. Now learn about the shy, but brave wife who made him what he was.

There was a time when Charles Lindbergh was the most famous man on Earth. His 1927 solo flight across the Atlantic caught the world's imagination and the public couldn't get enough of him. When he decided to get married he made looking for a wife into a project. Anne Morrow was the daughter of a wealthy and prestigious family and while Anne didn't quite take to Charles at first, it wasn't long until she was caught up in his charisma and the thrill of flying, and they were soon married.

Kathleen Winters has given us a very interesting biography of Anne that necessarily includes material on Charles, but usually from Anne's perspective. The subtitle of the book is "first lady of the air" and most of the book is about Anne's achievements as a pioneering woman in powered flight and gliding. The majority of the book focuses on two major expeditions Charles and Anne made to Asia in 1931 and all around the North and South Atlantic in 1933. Anne was not just along for the ride on these long and dangerous trips to open flying routes around the globe. As Charles noted when asked about taking his wife along on these hazardous flights, "she is crew". Anne operated the radio, used Morse code, and much more. The radio in those days was much more art than the standard technology it has become.

Winters provides great maps of these great journeys along with some terrific photographs. The revolutionary nature of these flights is made clear by the medal Anne was given by the National Geographic Society for her part in opening air routes around the globe.

While the book does cover the major biographical details including the kidnapping and murder of their firstborn with the subsequent trial of Hauptmann, everything but the flying is covered in short form, but all the major points are touched on.

I found Winters' treatment of Charles being given Service Cross of the German Eagle by Goering most interesting. It has become usual to bash Lindbergh for accepting this award, but the accusers rarely put the event in context. It happened only a few weeks after the "peace in our time" four-way pact signing between Britain, France, Germany, and Italy and weeks before Kristallnacht. The Lindbergh's had stopped in Germany for eighteen days after a trip to Russia. The presentation was made without warning or announcement at a men's only dinner at the American Embassy and at the time neither Charles nor the other men at the dinner thought much about it. Afterwards, Anne expressed her concern that the white cross would become an albatross around his neck. After Kristallnacht occurred, Charles wrote in his journal, "My admiration for the Germans is constantly being dashed against some rock such as this."

Winters also provides very interesting information about Anne's efforts and success as an author. I have not yet read any of Anne's writings, but this book has piqued my interest in seeking them out.

This is a most interesting book about a talented an intrepid women who held her own in a marriage to one of the great historic characters of the 20th Century. Her life is instructive, inspiring, and very much worth knowing. Winters' has written an honest and interesting look at her life and accomplishments. I recommend that you get a copy and enjoy it.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI

Like virtually everyone else, I was completely blown away by this Apogee book, and wholeheartedly concur that the included DVD is well worth the price alone.

I only wish one or more of the Apollo 11 astronauts themselves were engaged to provide a commentary sound track on the DVD. Afterall, such is common practice on most theatrically based movies available in this media format. Nevertheless, there is wealth of pure video film footage, but unfortunately mostly of exceedingly poor (originally recorded) audio quality, or simply long periods of silence, with no voice chatter whatsoever, apparently due to lack of narrative communications skills on the part of the first moonwalker during their EVA on the Moon. NASA's mission control must have notice the lack of voluntary information voiced by the astronauts, since a couple of times CAPCOM in Houston asks Armstrong and Aldrin for a radio check. (To some extent this lack of commentary of what the astronauts were doing and observing, thankfully, was remedied in later missions.) Also, during the EVA, LMP (Buzz Aldrin) voice communications with Neil, the Mission Commander, as well as Mission Control are particularly difficult to understand, because of frequent transmission dropouts within the lunar surface voice communications link. Also, because of the relay used, there is an intrusive echo. However, this is the way it actually was during several of the Apollo missions. Apogee did the best they could with what they had to work with through no fault of their own, and in fact seemingly added value to the audio track whenever, and as much as possible. What a pity the original sound recordings from NASA's archives were not already somehow rerecorded to improve their value for posterity.

Nevertheless, the book and especially the DVD are an Apollo era collector's dream of priceless, nearly four decades old, still historically significant material. I think this is the only Apollo related book DVD combo of its kind with so much A/V and textual information about a singular mission. The content of both is also well organized and Apogee's Robert Goodwin deserves much praise for his efforts in creating this unique DVD. Without question, it adds much additional value in Volume 3 of the series of Apollo 11 Mission Reports.

I especially liked the DVD segment of the actual lunar landing sequence. Apogee added subtitles to augment the hard to hear voice transmissions - this time from the "actual" LM pilot, Neil Armstrong. The landing segment starts from LM Eagle's PDI (descent stage deceleration rocket engine burn) at 50,000 feet, and take the viewer second by second, all the way through to the last minute (unplanned) detour to the actual landing site. The book, and to a lesser extent the DVD, explain why the LM landed nearly 4 miles beyond the originally planned touchdown coordinates; a risky, but necessary, decision made by Armstrong, to bring the ship down, from his perspective at the controls, to a visibly safer landing area. The landing finally occurred with ~30 seconds of fuel remaining. That decision took real guts!

The book includes numerous pages of figures depicting the LM's powered descent from high gate (~7200 feet), to low gate (~500 feet), to actual touchdown. The camera's view of lunar terrain at close range, if you pay real close attention, reveals some of the small craters and boulder fields directly before the belated landing site. If I was aboard for the flight, I think "terrifying" could best describe the situation, yet the astronauts voices on the cockpit recorder, are completely calm, cool and collected through the entire ordeal. Their pre-flight training must have prepared them for any possible contingency.

One of section of the book, supplemented by A/V footage in the landing segment, covers several aspects of the mission that actually did go wrong. Mostly about equipment failures that did not present any dangerous conditions to abort the mission, lest not life threatening to the astronauts. Nevertheless, they were still interesting to learn about after all these years since man's first successful lunar landing occurred.

For example, just after the astronauts' EVA, while back in the LM, they discovered a broken switch handle on the ascent rocket engine ignition arming circuit breaker. In addition, earlier in the mission after liftoff from the KSC, a pressurization heater in one of two O2 tanks in the Service Module was suspected of failing. (This was something that relates to the previous and two subsequent Apollo missions, which eventually had diastrous consequences for Apollo 13.)

In the blackness of space and shades of gray on the surface, even in bright sunlight, the landing site on the Moon, both videos and still photography, appears in exceptional good quality. This is because much of event was originally filmed with a 16mm color movie camera fixed to the LMP window. Plus, the astronauts used a high resolution stills film camera called a Hasselblad.

There are many video segments thoughout the double sided DVD, of greatly enhanced picture quality because of NASA's use of both these camera. The famous television footage, for network TV broadcasts of the event in realtime, is frankly horrendously bad in quality. But, do not let that dissaude you from getting this particular DVD. Apogee has elevated the video chronology of Apollo 11 to new heights.

Fortunately, both Neil and Buzz's first steps were recorded by fixed field of view fixed mount 16mm color camera, in addition to the TV camera, and therefore from multiple angles. The results are surprisingly good from the color camera filming from behind the LMP's interior window. Of course, the astronauts come in and out of view using this technique.

Still, the viewer can clearly see about a 30 foot area of the lunar surface immediately outside the LM and the astronauts working around the American flag. Apogee had to time stretch each frame of the color camera film recording for purposes of synchronizing with the black and white TV broadcast.

Intersperced with the motion picture film are numerous still color photos from the Hasselblad, and the way Apogee sequenced and coordinated all three picture image sources is masterful edited to create this unique DVD.

The DVD has several consecutive segments covering the moonwalk, about 2 hours in duration, each selectable in chapters from the DVD's main menus, one for each side of the disc. On the flip side are several key in-flight maneuvers during the mission, plus the complete sequence from PDI, up until the actual lunar landing. The landing has the realtime audio track from the cockpit communications with CAPCOM and occasional PAO ground loop narratives.

The in-flight maneuvers shown include extraction of the LM from the spent S-IVB third stage booster rocket on the way to the Moon, all docking and undocking maneuvers between the CSM and the LM, both pre and post lunar landing. Each of these is from the vantage point of each of the two maneuverable spacecrafts. There is also an eerie view of the Moon's many cratered and barren features, from the windows of the CM while still in lunar orbit.

The DVD concludes with a large (menu driven) selection of "color" pictures of Tranquility Base, showing the LM, ALSEPs and nearby lunar landscape, while Amstrong and Aldrin were walking around on the Moon. Some of these photos are well publized, but many others have rarely been seen in other Apollo publications. Again, these photographs were shot with the Hasselblad and therefore are in fairly good resolution; all sharply focused and of unsurpassed color quality given the generally colorless imagery of the lunar surface.

Overall, this book and included DVD, are a goldmine of Apollo 11 Mission facts and figures, and a complete A/V photographic record of the event. The jam packed DVD is sure to become a prized possession of enthusiastic space buffs of the Apollo era. The only thing better would have been as an eye witness, voyager to the Moon in the capacity of a sightseeing passenger astronaut.

Apogee has given us that vicariously, in this richly rewarding DVD, placed in a vinyl jacket inside the pages of another one of their very fine Apollo Mission Reports. These are perfectly complementary to one another, and Volume 3 of the Apollo 11 Mission Report series is by far the most unique assemblage of diverse source material of all the Apollo Missions in the Apogee Mission Reports portfolio.

This 3 volume series on Apollo 11 is a treasure of information on this historic flight of the Apollo Program. The CDs are a wonderful addition with incredible resources for use in the classroom. As a high school science teacher, it is wonderful to have these great resources!

For producing the DVD alone, which includes rare NASA film footage, much of which has never been viewed before, Robert Godwin deserves some sort of award for this. It's absolutely brilliant.

As the others point out here - the included DOUBLE SIDED (flip it over for more!) DVD is worth the price of admission and more!

There is a lot of raw 16mm onboard film footage that is interesting including, docking sequences and orbit shots but the fully synchronised sequence of the first ever moon EVA is good. The whole of the powered descent - it is FANTASTIC. Watch them practice in the simulators in the Tom Hanks series "From the Earth to the Moon" (the only place I know where you can get a sense of how hard a moon landing was) then listen to the real Armstrong's telling comment "This is harder than the simulator" on this DVD.

The only thing missing from the powered desent commentary is the full mission control loop - and really it has to be for clarity - leaving just Charlie Duke as CapCom as the voice of Mission Control set against Armstrong and Aldrin. The only thing you can do to better this is to actually visit the Apollo exhibit at NASA in Florida where you get a snip of the powered descent in an AV display and you DO get the control room loop which includes Gene Kranz's call - "if we lose comms or get that program alarm again - call an abort". They didn't - and you can't help but get the feeling that if Kranz had called an abort at 100ft Armstrong would have just kept going. Mission Control were already having kittens about how long he had flown on manual, the comms breaking up (listen to the "Switch to Omni and set it in slew" - on the DVD for a clue - if you ever hear the Mission Control loop it sounds much worse!) and how low the fuel really was - and on this DVD you can almost hear Aldrin saying on the cockpit loop "Damn Neil PUT HER DOWN" (he doesn't but you can hear it in what he does say).

Yep the book is good too (as are the other two that make up the Apollo 11 report) and for the Apollo buff you must have all three. If you jut want to know what the first moon landing and moon walk were like - buy volume 3 - for the DVD

The book is what I've come to expect from Apogee. But the CD Rom included with this is worth twice the price of the whole package. I feel like I've just seen the landing for the first time. The EVA also is just wonderful. What brilliant use of technology Apogee.
My hat is off to you once again.
PS Please do the same with Pete Conrad's mission!!!!

Arizona is a spectacular state. There is so much to explore, from the Grand Canyon to old mining town of Bisbee. North to south, east to west, this atlas will get you where you want to go. Even in you have a GPS, it helps to have a broader visual back-up. Get yourself an atlas and hit the road. Happy Trails!

We are snowbirds and we kept getting "misplaced" with the regular maps. This one is complete and accurate. Thanks

These Delorme Atlas & Gazetters are wondeful. They show you many features not available through GPS, maps or other atlases. It is a great feature to have the BLM lands marked as well as the back roads. Good resources are also included in each states atlas. A good addition to anyone's travel tools.

I purchased the maps so I could see the elevation contours. I have a Tennessee maps and it gives the elevation changes by 100 foot. The map gives some elevation but not the contours.

Great Product! Nearly as good as having a seperate map for every county in the whole state.
I like it best because I can read the text much easier than a state map, especially in low light. My bifocals are OK for reading but not the fine details of most maps.

I read this book and thought, yes this Frenchman makes many derogatory and embarassingly insensitive remarks about the Inuit. However, contrary to what one reviewer said below in "Good descriptions, bad insights, July 27, 2005", the author slowly develops a great respect for the intelligence, culture and abilities of these people so much so that he begins to emulate them. It is a subtle conversion story wrapped in a fabulous adventure; thoroughly enjoyable and well worth reading.

My good friend and I were talking a while back after I had watched the movie The Fast Runner, which he had recommended. Talk got around to my deciding to send him my old childhood copy (out of print, I believe) of Peter Freuchen's Book of the Eskimos, and his deciding to send me his old childhood copy of Kabloona. Neither of us had ever heard of the other's book. I must say, as much as I've always liked Freuchen, I got the better of the deal!

What a wonderful book. So well written, such nice storytelling, so enjoyable, refreshingly honest, and unexpectedly insightful. It is haunting. It really is in a class by itself, although I have trouble putting my finger on exactly why this is so. All I know is that I did not want it to end, as I'm sure the author did not want his time in the North to end. And, like him, I don't think it will be the same if I go back and try it again. And I know I also had a strange feeling throughout which only later I identified as a form of envy, envy for the experiences this man had and for his ability to experience them so deeply. I've seldom felt envy mixed with awe and admiration like this before.

Of all the book, I was most deeply moved by his account of the priest out in the middle of nowhere who had survived and kept warm in incredible cold merely through the power of faith and prayer. Humbling.

A man comes out of nowhere, lives these experiences, writes this incredible book, and disappears back into nowhere. Amazing. Read it.

The audio CD is outstanding...indeed the best I have ever listened to. For one thing, the narrator is marvelous in recreating both the 1930's world of France and Frozen Canada. I can't think of any other book or audio that so successfully transported me into an alien culture. Considering that there are quite a few films and books about Eskimos, why buy this one written 70 years ago? Answer: the literary quality of this work surpasses the prose of the last quarter century. When you listen to the narrator weave his tale, it mirrors the experience of hearing a tobacco chewing explorer slowly recounting his adventures in the wild. The story dives deep into the interior life of the author as much as it details an ethnographic examination of (primitive) Inuit life. The myths and values of the Eskimos contrast sharply with the borgeouis morals of a gentleman of Paris. For example, in Eskimo culture, there is little concept of private property...that's why an Eskimo man will let you borrow his wife or a snow knife. Language in the arctic is far more concrete. A polar bear is HE WHO HAS NO SHADOW. Far away, in the cold Arctic, author Grontran De Poncins learns what it means to be human, a man preeminently. This is a romance, a classic reminiscent of Robinson Crusoe. If you buy the audio CD, you will not be disappointed.

This is a magical book which I first read when I was young. It inspired in me dreams of adventure which I did not follow, but which became a part of my inner life. Now that I am old, I am reading Kabloona again so that I can remember that I once was young.

I looked up at the bookshelf over my computer and spotted the battered 1941 edition of Kabloona that has been in my family for 40 years since I first read it in the village of Coppermine (now Kugluktuk) when I was a 12 year old boy in 1961. I decided to do an AMAZON.com search to see if anyone else knew of this marvel that had so enchanted me as a child, and found the site you are now visiting.

We were much more civilized in the Coppermine of 1961 than the same village the author had visited 20 years earlier. We had electricity, and communication with the outside world by a Morse code key at the Department of Transport office, plus we had a scheduled visit by a single-engine Otter every two weeks. It was a magical time for me (adults found it a difficult time, but they simply did not understand things)

The book Kabloona gave me insight into the minds of the people around me. We were a community of 200 Inuit (Eskimos) and 35 whites. The whites had as many of the amenities of civilization as they could garner, but the Inuit lived much as described in De Poncin's book.

I was enthralled by the awesome hunters with their dog sleds and their magnificent huskies, not show dogs or racing dogs, but working dogs that made the difference between life and death. The men would bring back the carcasses of seal and caribou, and the furs they had trapped. The women sewed the furs into beautiful garments that kept man, woman and child warm in intolerably hard winters. It was also the women's job to butcher the carcasses, which they did with incredible speed and skill using only the ulu, or woman's knife. I regularly witnessed the activities of this way of life. De Poncin described all this in his book, but he also gave me insight into the underlying culture I was immersed in.

You can't live the life I led 40 years ago as a boy in the high Canadian arctic, but you can vicariously journey there to an even more primitive time, and enter into the incredible peace and stillness of an arctic winter night in an igloo, or the warmth and safety of a house made of snow as an unbelievable storm rages outside around you.

I recently spoke by satellite telephone to a man in Coppermine from my home in Missouri where I now live, and found that the village I once knew is now a very different place. But you can go back to an earlier era with De Poncin. I assure you, you won't regret your wonderful voyage with him.

I don't know if I'm permitted to speak of it here, but I have described my life in those years in the Arctic in a book, The Boy Who Fell To Earth. It is available at Amazon.com for those would like to buy a hard copy, or can be read for free on my warmbooks.com web site.