Travel Books

After buying a couple of guides to finding a job on a cruise ship I stumbled across this book about a month ago here on Amazon.com I figured I could get some information about what it was like to live and work on a cruise ship. After reading the book I am not so sure I want to work on a cruise ship, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Brian's experiences during his year working for Carnival Cruises.
He is not shy about exposing the elements of cruising that you don't see in the brochure and beyond entertainment this book could have an enormous practical benefit in terms of work quality in cruising. He makes it perfectly clear that working on a cruise ship is not the same experience as taking a cruise vacation, detailing just what the crew must go through in order to provide the highest quality experience.
Brian's writing style is not only entertaining, but super-detailed and relatable. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes humor and adventure.

This book was great .I have been on 15 cruises and Im a travel agent and always wanted to know what it was like to work on a cruise ship.I could not put the book down. You will love it .I dont think I needed to know that he does not believe in God .Im not sure that help the story any but thats his story.I hope he changes his mind as he grows older.It seems like there is a lot of Sexn going on below deck .I guess thats part of it.I would have like to know how much money he made on his contract as he seems to say they pay them slave wages.But great book. It can be rated X in some spots .

I found Brian Bruns' account of his year in a kind of seafaring bondage to be by turns amusing, shockingly illuminating, disturbing in its revelations of slave-labor crew conditions, often compelling in its details, and finally, well, appalling. Appalling? Yes. That in a cruise world of not just conspicuous, but even at times gargantuan, consumption and luxury, to discover that the folks who make it all work are really treated by their employers as little more than smiling automotons is indeed appalling.
Bruns' account of the enormous (in all senses of that word) family from Alabama ordering, if not always consuming, as many as six entrees each, and their Munster family children who like to trip tray-laden wait staff for amusement had me rolling on the floor on the one hand and wondering how to go about abandoning my US citizenship on the other.
If Bruns' account of crew conditions below the waterline is true, even in part, maybe by cracking the door ajar just a bit for us he will shame cruise ship management into cleaning up their act. In the meantime he has given us a very readable and enjoyable book. I just hope that, even with identities disguised, some of his crew mates and passengers don't find out where he lives.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It is written in a very relaxed and friendly way. The author brings you in to his world and easily shares his tales with you. From beginning to end this book will astonish you with the many details that go in to the cruising industry. You will never be able to look at having a meal on a cruise the same way again. The author does a great job of giving you a peak in to how Americans are perceived by folks from other countries...it will likely give you something to think about. I highly recommend this book to those who enjoy traveling and would like a greater appreciation for those who make it great.

Cruise Confidential is a tremendously entertaining behind-the-scenes view of life at sea for cruise crew members, as told by someone who actually worked on a cruise ship. It's a humorous insider's view told in an entertaining form, and it's a must-read for anyone who's ever sailed and then wondered how does the crew live and work on a cruise ship. If you've sailed and thought about how the always-smiling crew copes with long working hours and long periods of time at sea, you will really enjoy this book. Among the things the author reveals are what happens down in the crew deck (yes, they have their own decks that the passengers never see), what their living and working conditions are like, what a typical day is like, how much time they get off, what is the relationship among crew members, how they receive their assignments and what the struggles and pressures of working on a cruise ship are.

I've taken quite a few cruises and I've always wondered what it's really like for those who keep the ship running smoothly while working seemingly endless hours and smiling the whole time. This book answered my questions. Even if you have not cruised before this is a fun book that is humorous, engaging, entertaining and reads like a novel. Once I started reading it I couldn't put it down and once I was done it left me wanting more. I can't recommend this book enough. Luckily the author is writing another book, and I am eagerly awaiting it.

Kirk Johnson of the Denver Museum of Natural History and his traveling companion, artist Ray Troll, take us on a goofy whirlwind tour of fossil sites in the West that is funny and also informative. Kirk Johnson explains a lot of geological concepts along the way, while weaving in great anecdotes and entertaining sketches of the whacky characters who live and work at many of the sites they visit. Ray Troll's art, as always, is great and often quite surreal, and there's lots of it on every page. Highly recommended!

The book was listed in Science News, which is a weekly publication with current news in the world of Science. My spouse, who is a Registered Professional Geologist, asked me to purchase it for her. At first glance she thought it was a children's book, however; in reading further realized the book was intended for adults. Her rating is that the publication was very good, both well written and illustrated. This rating means a lot because it is from someone who must have at least a zillion books on Geology and also has a Masters Degree in the subject.

Caution! Paleo fever is catching. I already had a light dose of it before reading the book. Not many people carry around a small chunk of dinosaur rib in their purse just for the heck of it. (It makes a hilarious conversation piece at security check points. Most screeners don't want anything more to do with the purse after finding the bone.)

Now, after reading the book, I have a full blown case, and am itching to get back on the road. This book strikes just the right balance between hard information and just plain fun.

We went to Montana last summer and met several people who were at least as interesting as the bones - with strange tales of discovery and survival. Guess what! after reading the book, I now know that there is a whole world of fossils and people just waiting to be discovered.

This book answers a lot of questions that I had - i.e. what on earth is a concretion? Before reading the book, I could recognize one, but couldn't define what it was. Now I know more about what they are and how they form.

The book delivers a steady drip of valid scientific information that you almost don't realize that you are getting. (The author is a curator at the Denver Museum.)

The book will also tell you how to recognize and find dinosaur tracks at 65 miles an hour. - I won't give away the secret,but, I'll give you a hint: it involves birthday cake and ants.

Be warned! If you read this book, you will be left screaming for a ROAD TRIP in the great old American tradition.

Funny,thought-provoking story with historic information on paleontological sites and the people who search for fossils.

One part Easy Rider, one part On the Road with Charles Kuralt, and one part "stuff to find by the side of the road." Mix up these three and add an interesting commentary of "how things got to be the way they are" and you'll have some idea of what "Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway" is like. I've read "The Bone Wars" (Cope vs Marsh) and, while I find the topic interesting, I had to drag myself through parts of it. I also have a number of "Roadside Geology" books that I'm generally disappointed with. In "Cruisin'," Dr. Johnson gives details about the first scientists on the scene, plus precise locations & basic geology, and manages to make it all humorous and entertaining. The Easy Rider camaraderie between Johnson and artist Troll is often quite amusing, and the sketches of personalities they meet along the road makes what could be a very dry subject full of personable details. The octogenarian racing to beat Johnson to a fossil, the 16 year old girl with an Allosaurus under her bed, the "King of Trilobites" who has little more than disdain for fossils ... all keep the narrative far from a textbook coverage of geology. No, I don't know the author well enough for him to buy me lunch or have a piece of the royalties. I just really enjoyed both the personalities and the fossil info in the book. If you're serious about collecting, get the separate map as well: not only is it covered in Trollish art, but it provides an accurate index of fossil locales throughout the Western states (in much more detail and over broader areas than the book ... and better than any other source I've seen).

Very useful if you want to go there and understand the real Morocco. Well written, too.

It is all very well, but the main vehicle of culture is the language. This book is helpful in highlighting cultural features but a good section on the language would also be a good idea.

I have spent 3 summers in Morocco and 5 years with my husband who is Moroccan and this book clarified a lot aspects of Moroccan life for me. No matter how objective one may be about cultural differences, it helps to have a neutral party explain what is happening in a given interaction. I didn't even realize how much I suffered from culture shock until I read "Culture Shock!" Particually helpful were the author's comments on the difference in Western and Eastern concepts of personal space, public space and privacy.

In anticipation of accompanying my close Moroccon friend to his homeland on a business trip with another American, I read this book in one sitting and read it twice more before leaving for Morocco. It proved to be an invaluable tool to better understanding my Moroccan friend here in the states and it provided knowledge, information and tips that proved priceless during my recent stay in Morocco. I have no doubt that had I not read this book, I would have had a very different experience. This book enabled me to have the most incredible travel experience of my life despite the fact that I don't speak arabic or french. At the very least I had an understanding of this wonderfully rich culture steeped in tradition. I recommend this book to anyone interested in Morocco whether for travelling or simply interested in the country, their people and customs. While this book is ideal for someone relocating, I found it to be more useful than any of the other travel companions I purchased for my trip. Any future travel plans of mine will start with a purchase of "Culture Shock..." for that country.

After reading this book, now I'm all the more excited to go to Morocco. Hargraves paints such a vivid picture of the people, the culture. It is a complicated society, very foreign to my understanding and experience. And yet, as I read through it, so many times, page after page, I realize that the culture is so familiar, so like my experience. Most of all, I now understand that it will take a lifetime to learn to adapt to Moroccan culture. I am eager to see how the words lift off the pages and into reality.

Almost every page has nuggets and key points to learn and understand, and my copy is mostly yellow from highlighting. One aspect that I wish were different, though- Hargraves appears too often to accept the stratification in Moroccan culture, and the mistreatment of the lower classes, as par the course, and something Moroccans accept, and therefore something that we should accept, and something culturally neutral. There is so much good in Moroccan society, but, just as in any society, some that is not as good as well.

But that's only one small detraction in an otherwise great text. Particularly interesting is the quiz at the end of the book, where you test one's knowledge gained through reading. I've never seen this in any other culture or travel book, and it should really be more common! Hargraves doesn't just repeat information here either- rather, he asks the reader to intuit the answers not yet given, from the information that he's previously provided- and then of course, he provides all the possible correct answers.

I want to learn how to live and eat and talk and think, Moroccan. I want to see what it means to be a Moroccan who is so adept at adaptation to so many different cultural situations. I want to learn to engage in real Arab relationship, and to learn how to politely refuse a request, and how to be a good guest, and a good host. I want to learn how to serve the Moroccan peoples. If you're interested in this as well, then this is a book you need to get.

I first picked up this book ten years ago at a secondhand shop in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, at the end of the Karakoram highway and read it with fascination. Having travelled most of the same route very thoroughly myself, some things in the book come across as a little too fantastic, and others are just wrong . To be generous these could be failings of memory. Yet, these are minor flaws, that haven't stopped me from enjoying the book.

I disagree with the complaints on the amazon.uk site about the quality of the prose, keeping in mind it is a personal travel book and not a scholarly examination of the regions he passes through. We get insights into the people he meets but most importantly into the life of Mr Danziger himself. The omissions, the fantasies and ultimately the focus of the book always, like a dream, come back to the narrator and his own experience on his narrow path across the globe.

Well worth a read.

While visiting England earlier this year, my English friend recommended, among many other travel narratives, this book, and I didn't put it down until I finished it. Even in the water closet I was riveted with this enthralling adventure. It's stories like these that keep me travelling.

This is the most exciting travel book I have ever read

This was a great read. I have an Iranian friend who expressed serious doubts as to the authenticity of Danziger's one-night stand with his Iranian hostess, as well as his other improbable adventures. But fabrication or not, I liked the book a lot.

We were vacationing in England, when I saw this book on the shelf at Foyle's. I picked it up and read the back and we spent a lot of money at Foyle's but I didn't buy DANZIGER'S TRAVELS. However, it kept coming back into my thoughts every time we'd pass a bookstore, so at the airport, before we boarded the plane, I ran like a madwoman to the newstand and purchased a copy. I read it the whole way home on the plane, in the limousine on the ride home, and for three days following our return. I did take time out to unpack, but not much. It is a really interesting travel story, and an interesting telling of how Danziger was affected personally by the trip, but more by the people. Pick it up and see if you can put it down, I'll bet you can't. It's worth the time.

This is a wonderful photo representation of the desecration and destruction of a beautiful train station. It provided me with images and emotions I have not otherwise experienced in reviews of the original Penn Station. I highly recommend this to anyone interested in the subject and photography!

This is an extraordinary, heartbreaking, must have book for anyone who loves New York and/or McKim, Mead & White's work.

Photographer Peter Moore and his wife Barbara moved into the Penn Station neighborhood in the early sixties. They used the building every day, whether they were passing through to the subway or catching a bite in the cavernous coffee shop.

With the railroad's permission, they documented its slow dismantling over the four years from 1963-1967. This book is the first appearance of that work. The black and white pictures are arranged chronologically, showing the faded but still magnificent station from its last days of active use through to its ghostly presence as a metal shell. The photography is beautiful and lyrical and sad beyond words, like a mournful love song to a love lost. The picures of the rubble-filled waiting room, its shape still intact but its side walls gone, are especially hard to take.

One note: this is not an exhaustive review of the building and its various spaces. It is a chrono picture of the concourse and waiting room through through their destruction. For more pics of the station in use, try "The Late, Great, Pennsylvania Station."

I remember as a kid in the mid-70s taking the train to NYC and having to endure the commuter's nightmare known as "modern" Penn Station.

In the late 80s, I learned what once was on the site of the current MSG/Penn Station monstrosity and became appalled that people could let a beautiful work of art be dismantled and replaced with a horrible building. In the early 1990s, I learned about the 1950s and 1960s and how Americans were obsessed with all things modern and new, rejecting anything with a hint of age or ornament.

Moore & Moore take a pictorial look on how the McKim, Mead and White's neoclassical masterpiece was dismantled over a multi-year period in the mid-1960s. While they really don't go into detail on why the old Penn Station was demolished, the spooky, B & W photos tell more than how an architectural gem was demolished. On a deeper level, the photos tell the tale of how an entire city was becoming irrelevant to suburban America and was sinking into massive decline (the years of municipal bankrupcy and burning neighborhoods in the South Bronx are only a few years away).

It was a very sad book that gets more depressing with each turn of the page, as more and more of the beauty of the old Penn Station gets stripped away. I guess that was the power of the photographs working on me.

Pair this book up with Robert Caro's _The Power Broker_ to get a good picture of New York in the early Baby Boom era.

This book just takes your breathe away, the images are so vivid and shocking. How on earth could anyone sign off on destroying this colossel beauty, it's something I just can't get my mind around. I am so grateful that this was documented, as hard as it is too look at, people need witness these pictures to make sure it does not happen again. Many people credit the outrage over the razing of this McKim, Mead, and White masterpiece with helping save Carnige Hall and Grand Central, which though appreciated, does not lessen the sadness over the loss of this New York City treasure, it really is such a tragic loss. I highly recommend this book for its text, great visuals, and the power is thought it provoks: great book.

I am one of the generation of New Yorkers that have grown up with the ghost of the old Penn station - and its unfortunate replacement. We have been forever robbed of this stately thing, which was so much more than a building. Watching it's slow death in these haunting pictures makes me hope this is the last time we have used our imagination to destroy rather than build. (This is an especially painful irony in light of our recent tragedy.) Get this book, and look at it with your children. And may we never treat the human-made beauty around us with such contempt again.

Highly informative. A few aspects need to be updated, though. I'd buy a second edition without any hesitation.

I bought this book at the Kennedy Space Center Space Store and at first thought the cover and title looked sort of juvenile. However, once I started reading it I couldn't put it down! Mullane answers so many questions I didn't even think to ask and answered questions I had in my mind while touring NASA. This book enriched my NASA experience and I feel so much more knowledgeable about what astronauts experience. His writing style is as lighthearted and accessible as it is thorough. From explaining how astronauts have to work the toilet system on shuttles to how they are chosen to be an astronauts to facts about the Challenger tragedy, the simple question/answer format makes it fast reading and easy to go back and peruse. Published in 1997, I wish Mullane would update it and add more, but this is such a good introduction to the whole shuttle experience, I won't complain. In fact, this book has given me a better understanding of the current spacewalks on the space station and the Cassini spacecraft that just reached Saturn's orbit. I can easily see how this book could be very inspirational for a wanna-be or don't-yet-know-they-wanna-be astronaut, as well.

It's always more fun hearing about space from an astronaut who's been there and especially one who includes a picture of himself in a "urine collection device." I guarantee you'll be glad for reading this one.

Three times Space Shuttle Astronaut R. Mike Mullane answers 500 questions regarding space traveling and life onboard the Space Shuttle. From the technical ones [Shuttle weight or the gravity escape velocity] to very simple questions [Do yor ears pop in space? or Have you seen any ufo's?] this book is a delight for anyone interested in knowing more about the current state of space exploration and shuttle manned missions. The format of the book is quite simple: A question in bold lettering followed by a simple, yet intelligent and informative answer. Topics covered range from Take off, reentering the atmosphere, life onboard the ship to some tips for becoming an astronaut. Some black and white pictures and illustrations make the book a little more atractive. The author also provides the reader with many email addresses throughout the book in order to contact him or other astronauts or space program workers. Once you star reading this book, you won't be able to put it down! A must for space enthusiasts, and if you want to know the answer to the title question, you'll have to get the book...

People who read FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions, a common format to provide information on Usenet and the web) will find the style of this book familiar and accessible. And so, I think, will a lot of people. One of the best things about this book, besides the amount of ground it covers, is its suitability for a wide audience. Its simple language covering a wide range of subjects will appeal to everyone from children to adults, from people with a cursory interest in space travel to people obsessed with it. The book comes with recommendations from Neil Armstrong and James Lovell, as well as several less famous (but not necessarily less experienced) space professionals.

The writing style is both candid and humorous, and the author, a retired astronaut, does not try to glamorize space travel. He describes several times the awe and wonder of seeing Earth through the shuttle window, but he also describes the terror of liftoff and the embarrassment of pre-launch toilet training (astronauts needing to defecate have to aim very carefully, and the training for this involves watching on a monitor the output of a videocamera pointed at the astronaut's rectum). At the same time, he corrects fears and other mistaken ideas spread by a misinformed media. He is also honest about his own emotional reactions to spaceflight, including ones that shatter the heroic, superhuman image that astronauts are expected to live up to -- and also reactions, or lack of reactions, that might surprise people.

An index is provided at the back for easy searching, since a full list of questions is not provided at the front. The questions are grouped under nine categories: Space Physics, Space Shuttle Pre-Mission and Launch Operations, Space Shuttle Orbit Operations, Life In Space, Space Physiology, Space Shuttle Reentry and Landing, Challenger, Astronaut Facts, and The Future. Within these categories he covers subjects ranging from the technical and social to the mundanities of life in a space shuttle.

Anyone with an interest in space travel would probably have an interest in this book. Even the author, who worked in space, had to go to other people to answer a lot of his questions -- so even he learned things he didn't know from writing this book. That is how a book should be written, and the book reflects this in the same way as hearing a lecturer speak with real enthusiasm on his or her subject. This is not only everything you wanted to know but were afraid to ask, but everything you never thought to ask but are glad to know.

This book is easy to read and is a must for any fan of space travel. The book format uses one line questions followed up with an answer of a paragraph or two. The great thing is that the questions cover EVERY aspect of life in outer space that you can imagine - sleeping, hygene, eating, going to the bathroom, bleeding, clothing and back pain! There is also a great chapter which gives tips on what it takes to get into the space program. Once I picked up this book, I couldn't put it down!

I really enjoyed "Don't Know Where, Don't Know When".

Hannah and Alex Diaz and Brandon Clark arrive in England during World War 2, with a mystery to solve. The kids from this century, find themselves unprepared for the world of war torn England. The children encounter air raids, evacuations, and hand-me down clothes. Since food is rationed, they often eat dry bread and cakes. The rules are strict and can require firm punishments.

Alex and Hannah are taken in by Mrs. D, a strict woman, who takes the children into her home and under her wing. Alex takes his new environment as a challenge and an adventure. Hannah often opens her mouth and says inappropriate things, which cause trouble for all involved.

Brandon is separated from his friends, not only by being in a different home, but a different time in history, where he is required to work for his room and board.

Join in the adventure of Hannah, Alex and Brandon, as they travel into the past and bring back lessons they can use in the future.

Jill Ammon Vanderwood,
author: Through the Rug
Through The Rug: Follow That Dog (Through the Rug)Stowaway: The San Francisco Adventures of Sara, the Pineapple Cat

My sister is 13 years old and she despises books. After much begging and pleading I finally convinced her to read Don't Know Where, Don't Know When. Here's what she had to say:
That was a really good book. I loved it. I read a lil bit every night. I like those kids in the book. I would so read it again.
Don't Know Where, Don't Know When is the first book my sister has read and actually ENJOYED!!

Don't Know Where, Don't Know When is an amazingly engaging book written very well. A good friend of mine recommended me to read it and after I asked what it was like, she responded that it was a bit like Harry Potter only with history. Now that I've read it, I agree. No, there's no wands or boarding school, but there is the magic of time travel and of characters that take you to another place and time. As I read the book, I marveled at some of the things that the kids, Alex, Hannah, and Brandon, encountered and wondered to myself "could this actually be the way it was then?" I found that these things were true.
Annette Laing is a wonderful writer who grabs you with her style. I highly suggest this book for anyone at all.

This brought back my son's love of reading again. We found it under 'Historical Fiction' which is a bit of a stretch. They do talk about history, but not as much as their adventure. I would like to see more history in subsequent novels. My son loved the characters, especially Alex!

Don't Know Where, Don't Know When is a story of many people and times. Hannah and Alex Dias, two young teens from California have just been transplanted from the home they have always known to another world, otherwise known as Snipesville, Georgia. With its private luxury communities in the middle of cotton fields and mall known far and wide as the Small, Snipesville is the last place on earth Hannah wants to be.
Brandon Clark, born and raised in Snipesville, has one ambition: to get out, to be one of the "Big Shots" who leave black Snipesville and make a name for themselves in the wider world. However, Brandon's future seems to stretch before him, planned by his parents, like the grim parades of death that leave the family funeral home.
When Hannah, Alex, and Brandon are drawn together by their mutual differences and isolation, unlikely events begin to unfurl. Brandon's discovery of a British World War II national registration identity card and the appearance of a mysterious woman known as The Professor lead the children on a time travel journey spanning two World Wars and nearly one hundred years. The only clue to the mystery: Find George Braithwaite.
Don't Know Where, Don't Know When is author Annette Laing's first foray into the world of children's literature. It is the promising if slightly raw beginning of a series that has the potential to be great. Those familiar with Maiya Williams time travel series (The Golden Hour, The Hour of the Cobra) will find good grounds for comparison. The differences? Laing's use of social and/or cultural history is easier and more accurate, and there is an absolute avoidance of declaring a moral (not that this excludes the reader from finding one (or more).
The Characters: Hannah is a nightmare. I have never met a child like her (and thank my lucky stars that is so), but I have it on good authority that children like her really do exist. She speaks to everyone, regardless of age or relationship, with snotty abandon, no fear of physical punishment, or even as far and I can see, grounding, blunting her sarcastic tongue. Even those of us not in favor of spanking children cheer when one indomitable British dame finally gives Hannah her just desserts. By the end of the book she is not noticeably changed in attitude, but decidedly challenged in outlook by late experiences.
Alex is largely a secondary character in this book, with no real chances for expression. There are, however, hints of future importance and even leadership to look forward to.
The story built around Brandon is very interesting. Both of the father figures in his life, real life and time travel, are named Gordon. The wives are imposing (and in Mrs. Gordon's case, downright nasty) and there is an idolized older brother figure who looms large but is never really seen. It is lovely to see the confidence and self possession Brandon gains with the Gordons's that he seems to lack with his own family. Speaking of the Gordons, the daughter Peggy is a wonderfully despicable and yet pathetic character, because you have to wonder if it is her own weakness of character, an acceptance of family prejudice, or the troubles she has had to endure that have so warped her opinions. Peggy plays an important, if secondary and sometimes unrecognizable role throughout the story.
The real jewel of this Story is Mrs. D, who I will leave you to discover for yourself. She is a lovely and lovingly portrayed example of all the strong, staunch, somewhat undemonstrative women who kept Britain going during the horrendous years of World War II.
Do yourself a favor: read this book and read it carefully. At times it is a bit difficult to work your way through the teenage angst, especially in the first two or three chapters. Children may not find any of this distracting. By the time you reach chapters five and six you won't care any longer; you will be too involved in the lives and worlds being lived on the pages before you.This book is appropriate for the ages specified and beyond. Paying close attention will reward the reader with clues and hints as to the future of the series. Enjoy.

I couldn't put this book down -- from beginning to end the narrator takes your breath away with her dazzling descriptions of the remote and beautiful Driftwood Valley; the accounts of the valley in dead of winter, covered in twenty feet of snow with wolves singing mournfully and stars and northern lights dancing in the sky, brought tears to my eyes. The physical hardships and hair raising adventures she shares with her husband and their animals, her descriptions of the native people and wildlife, fascinating commentary on wilderness survival, and most of all her heartfelt love of the land itself, are nature and adventure writing at their best.

I read this book after finding it in a box in my parents attic at the age of ten. I have been trying to remember the title or author for years so I could read it again! This book is a magical read for anyone familiar with the ebb and flow of life in the wild. It inspired me to move to the Pacific Northwest and I am now planning my own trip to the Driftwood Valley. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys spending time outdoors and reading about nature! Top notch!

I am pleased to see this book has recently been reissued. I have an old, but treasured paperback copy. The author is observant of, informative about, and acutely responsive to the environment she describes. Having experienced winters in that region I would say she is especially adept at rendering the harsh, but radiant winters.

This book is an amazing journey into the frontiers of nature, exploration and science in the 1930's.

I have an autographeed copy the ©1946 edition of Driftwood Valley. I had the privilege of growing up in the same rural Pennsylvania town as Ms. Fletcher. When I was a teenager, I was employed by Ms. Fletcher to clean house for her one summer while she was away. She is a very nice woman with a remarkable background. She has set aside a nature conservatory in Northeast Pennsylvania which is open to the public. She has always been active in protecting the environment and wildlife. I re-read Driftwood Valley every couple of years and just love the adventure and challenges of this true-life story. What made it even more exiting for me is that the author was from my hometown.

Wolfe has managed to catch some of the Earth's most astounding and beautiful moments in clear, remarkable ways. With pictures of volcanoes exploding with nothing behind them but blackness and stars, and icebergs floating on the edge of gorgeous horizons, you really do feel as though you're on the very edge of the world.

Beauty and wildness are the two main themes of this book: eruptions of fire, crashing waves, and desert lands are all presented in beautiful and larger than life format. I honestly never knew that a volcano or iceberg could be strikingly beautiful until I read this book! I can't imagine how Wolfe caught these images. Although this book is not religious by theme, I don't know how anyone could come away from it unconvinced that there's a God, for surely only an infinetly majestic being could create such huge majesty. Read this book, and find yourself on the edge of an incredible world that you probably never realized you lived in.

Anyone who cares about wild places will find Edge of the Earth, Corner of the Sky to be a tremendously moving testament to our need to preserve the places that provide us with our sense of wonder. The photography will bring most people to this book, but the essays by Art Davidson about how our wild places are in jeopardy will stay just as vividly in your mind. Robert Redford and John Adams provide excellent forewords to set the stage for this remarkable work. Whether or not you know how to take landscape photographs, the section describing Art Wolfe's most unusual works will fascinate you.

The volume is divided into five wild landscape subjects: desert, ocean, mountain, forest, and polar. Now, if you are like me, you might think that desert is a strange choice. How can that be very interesting? Actually, the brilliance of the photographic work will astonish you. Mr. Wolfe unveils stunning montages of vivid color and shimmering shadows. In a few instances, he selects angles that reveal one or two trees in the foreground that are totally dominated by sand dunes in the background. It's like traveling to Herbert's Dune, although the scenes are from Namibia here on Earth.

Surprisingly, ocean is probably the least interesting subject among the five although no one will be yawning at these wonderful images. Mountain images provide a delightful combination of the familiar (Mount Everest and the Matterhorn) and the intriguing unfamiliar (Mount Fitzroy in Argentina and Los Penitentes in Chile). All of the polar scenes are eerie in their beauty and desolation.

Many books of landscape photography rely on the grandeur of nature's normal expression. Mr. Wolfe is far more artful in his compositions than that. Like Ansel Adams, the moon may be setting at just the right spot in the sky to provide extra drama. Using the light that may also exist for a few seconds on any day near sunrise or sunset, vivid colors streak across land, sky, and water. In one case, the illumination is from a brief solar eclipse. Mr. Wolfe is a man of great patience to create such unusual works. You could travel to all of these places for twenty years, and miss ever scene that Mr. Wolfe captured.

If you know anyone who cares about wild places, you would have a hard time finding a better gift than this one. And get a copy for yourself.

Find a way to keep the wild the way it is.

Bravo!

I really enjoyed this collection of still lives from the borderlines of space and time, light and structure.
Art Wolfe captures precious fleeting moments in its photographs, and makes you see things as you never did before. He shows the inherent and often overlooked beauty of lifeless landscapes; human beings, animals, and nearly all plants are excluded. The books five materials, sand, water, rock, trees/cacti, ice - and I may add a sixth: skies - are portrayed with such mastery, that you can feel their texture, and experience all their colors and shapes.
Art Davidson's texts are a perfect match, because they emphasize the photographer's statement that earth's integrity has to be conserved for the worth to humankind.

I bought this book and found that it is great in term of the technologies used to produce this book. From cover design, binding, scanned photos, paper quality, etc. However, honestly and with my respect to Mr. Art Wolfe photography skills, I found most of his photos are lifeless. Technical wise they are super but they lack aesthetic touch and they seem to be missing their messages. BTW, they say it was seven years working on this book...not true! It was a collection of photographs on a course of 7 years. If you want a coffee table book, it is a great one. If you want a how-to, look for my great photographer...John Shaw. The master of life photos not lifeless ones. Last thing look at the book dimensions before you buy it. Very big.

In my opinion, the images within this book reflect a perfect combination of light and opportunity and particularly I'm very impressed by the star trails. In general Art Wolfe shows us "through the lens" how beautiful our earth currently is. An important message is that it should be saved so that future generations will be able to live on. The (excellents) forewords in this book underline this approach.

At the end of the book Art Wolfe explains his used technique, how to achieve a proper exposure, how to consider the light etc.. This book is brilliant in all aspects!

Well, they didn't, but it's a classic anyway.

This is a terrific book for anyone who wants to learn how great projects are visualized, actualized, and pressed through extremely challenging environmental circumstances. It's a source of inspiration for the dreamers and the practical alike.

If you want to read about architecture and engineering, you get only a small dose here. It's more about the capitalization, visioning and building. But that story is magnetic and wonderful.

Only thing they left out: that it was to this (then half-empty) building that Annhaeuser-Busch delivered the "first" case of legal beer to Al Smith at the end of Prohibition. Smith, the "wet" and the eternal optimist, exemplifies what this building was conceived to be: a vibrant and living testimony to the human spirit.

So, it stands to reason that it survives now as New York's essential symbol.

From the outset, the Empire State Building seemed to have had everything going against it. Although conceived during the 1920s boom years, most of the construction went on during the earliest years of the Depression, thereby putting the idea of high occupancy in the severest doubt. Its location wasn't ideal either. It was three miles north of the Wall Street district and a mile south of the center of the midtown business center. And it was ten blocks south of Grand Central Station and three avenues east of old Pennsylvania Station. The idea of mooring dirigibles was quickly scrapped after failed attempts. And sure enough, although the Empire State Building did get built, the tenants did not come. King Kong did, but he didn't pay rent.

John Tauranac describes all this and more in his exhaustive book, THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING: THE MAKING OF A LANDMARK. Written in an engaging style, Tauranac's book is as elegant and interesting as the subject itself, while his wit is as colorful as the characters surrounding the Empire State Building's creation. The book covers the idea for the building, Raskob's and Smith's supervision, the monumental task of the construction workers, and, most importantly, the survival of the building to become THE emblem of America's cultural and economic reach while become THE identifying symbol of New York City. The generous amount of photographs add to the understanding and enjoyment of the book. Highly recommended.

This is an excellent work that details the history of the Empire State Building. I was a bit surprised to find how much the author managed to pack into my paperback. Everything from skyscraper height restrictions to land leases and modern restructuring of ownership for tax purposes (and all the "interesting" stuff in between). If you buy this book and you're not from New York, do yourself a favor and get a map of the area. So you can follow along in the early chapters.

This book is a must read for anyone interested in not only the Empire State Building, but in New York City history of the late 1920s and early 1930s. Who would think that a building completed in 1931 at 1250 feet high would still be the tallest building in NYC in 2007 (of course, we can't forget the tragic loss of the taller WTC Towers). This book covers the quick construction of the ESB, but also covers the politics and history behind the building's location (the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel used to be at the corner of 5th Ave and 34th Street) and the people involved. This is an interesting book about an exciting time where anything seemed possible in one of the world's greatest cities.

I bought this book shortly after a trip to NYC in 2000, and found it to be an excellent history of one of the Big Apple's architectural jewels, the Empire State Building. It is full of intrigue, history, great anecdotes and one-of-a-kind photographs. If you're a visitor to Manhattan or a local resident, you owe it to yourself to read this book.