Road Books

I cannot wait to read this book! Grimaldi captured my attention immediately. To search for one's self is a long and sometimes painful journey. When you do finally find who you are there really is no better joy. I'm looking forward to taking this journey with Kevin!

Born in Freehold, NJ, I became attracted to Kevin Salter's story and experience immediately in the beginning. Mr. Grimaldi captures the reader by colorfully portraying this wedding photographer and his encounter and can easily be related to real life emotions and situations.
I am anxious to continue reading the story to see what the future holds for Kevin and for Grace, as Continental Drift is sure to appeal to all audiences with its clear understanding and interesting characters.

Grimaldi's descriptive narrative of Kevin and the job he was attempting to do made me feel as if I was standing right along side of the main character witnessing his world. I look forward to reading the complete novel as I see America and many of its special types of people through Grimaldi's intense portrayals of Kevin's adventures.

Grimaldi's characters are rich, quirky and interesting. He keeps readers engaged with throughout the piece. Many will be looking forward to reading the novel in it's entirety, especially myself.

"I used to get high on life...but I built up a tolerance." One of the many truthful tidbits that flavors this excerpt of Mr. Grimaldi's novel. Even as we (like Kevin, the photographer protagonist) long for grounded-ness, do we despise the emotional inertia and spiritual complacency of being "settled"? Shall we choose to stay (or to set ourselves) adrift? Or, needing more to cling to, can we find a path that provides the stability we crave? Following this metaphor, the reader may ask:" When/if we do manage to "arrive", is it ever to that destination we thought we were focused on, or even a vague resemblance?" Grimaldi's imagery led me on an exploration of such questions, and made "Continental Drift" a compellingly terrific read. I look forward to the rest of the journey!

I loved this book!! It was laugh out loud funny, and I got a real feel for the places that Doreen and her husband got to visit. When I was finished reading I was so sad that the trip was over, made me want to go right out,buy a renovated bus and hit the road. Unfortunately not possible for me at this time, but at least I got to live the life vicarously through Doreen's great story telling. One of the things I came away with from this book (besides some really imaginative and delicious sounding martini recipes featured in the beginning of each chapter, so fun and practical!!) was a strong sense of wanderlust, a real desire to see more of this country! Thanks Doreen, looking forward to more stories.

It is definately not worth five stars. I find that her humor is abit stale, that is unless you enjoy self-depricating humor. I personally don't. I think where whe excels by far is in her description of all the people and sites that she has traversed over her year long trip; they are simply amazing. I am not saying that the book couldn't be a five star book for someone else but for me it left a bit something lacking. Do pick it up you will be glad that you did, remember one man's trash is another man's gold.

So take a skeptical homebody psychiatrist and throw her on a careening bus with an optimistic adventuring psychiatrist and what do you get? A fabulous, faceted read that keeps the chuckles coming. The book is not only hilariously sarcastic, but also offers a sensitive look into the lives of two people reconnecting and prioritizing and just being brave and up for something new. Doreen makes no excuses for the person she is (a "Queen from the Island of Long") and pet lovers out there will truly appreciate the hijinks involving pets on a bus! And because Doreen is cerebral, the book isn't just a bunch of silly, funny travel notes; there is depth and conscious contemplation that gives the reader something meaty to hold onto. Enjoy!

I bought a signed copy at Border's in NYC. I am a huge fan of travel memoirs and this one was a smash. It was part love story, part adventure, a lot of mishaps and a lot of laughs! I really enjoyed seeing how this trip changed both Doreen and her husband. I won't say more as I don't want to spoil the adventure. You won't be let down.
Many thanks to Doreen! Can't wait for your next book!

I have three words for this book - FUN FUN FUN! My son actually passed me this book and said, "Read it, Mom. You will enjoy it". I read it and laughed all the way through. I actually wanted to pack up my animals, get a bus and travel the country. It's nice to see a well written book about the trials and tribulations of spending a year with your spouse, critters and sharing your journey throughout America. Take the bus ride with this book. You will love it.

Right from the gitgo Ben Hamper's Rivethead grabs you with gritty gusto of passages such as the above; Hamper is an extraordinary writer about life for the ordinary guy... at least the ordinary guy who winds up as an automotive assembly-line worker for General Motors in Flint, Michigan--once considered the Automobile Capital of the World. The author is a natural shop rat, growing up in Flint, with an alcoholic mostly absentee father and a long-suffering, working-three-jobs mother trying to raise the family as practicing Catholics.

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Brian Wright
Copyright 2008

The endless monotony and idiot bosses drive anybody with an IQ above their shoe size to do something to kill the thought that, if they're lucky, they only have 30 more years of mind numbing drudgery to go before they can retire. I'm not saying alcohol abuse is the proper outlet, but it does seem to be the most common and most convenient. Good book, excellent portrayal of what exactly "blue collar America" does for a living.

Ben Hamper shares his life as a worker on the GM assembly line in Flint, MI. Bold, frank, honest and often hilarious. This book was recommended to me years ago and for some reason I never read it until now. Hamper chronicles a part of American history (manufacturing jobs) that seem to be going stateside or as Ross Perot once described in a quip about NAFTA, what's that whoosing noise? manufacturing jobs headed to Mexico. This is prose for the ages. Loved the book.

I didn't really like reading this book because I too work in a (once) major three Auto plant. I didn't feel that it properly portrayed some of the workers. It made it sound like all workers are like the author where they just really don't give a damn about anything except having a joking time on the job. It also made the workers sound like they were underachieving, undereducated, bottom of the barrel workers and I didn't care to have that stigma for all of us. I hold two bachelor degrees, like my job and take it serious!

I grew up with people like Ben Hamper in a place which was much like Flint. For the first couple years of my adult life, I did the kind of work he did. What he describes is the tail end of a lifestyle; the lifestyle of the shop rat. It's dirty, monotonous and smelly. Many of the people you work with are either below average in intelligence or in sanity. Drugs, booze and having no concept of "forethought" are fundamental parts of the culture. It's nihilism with a rivet gun. If you come from a place like that, chances are, your only way out is via a jail cell or a career in the military. Or, you could win a workmans comp suit. Which is presumably how Ben got out.

I miss rust-belt working class america. It's a hard life, and it doesn't have much in the way of rewards, but the people who make it up are genuine in ways that others are not: they have a lot of heart and spirit. Ben's book brought it all back in a great galloping rush of memories. If you've ever wondered what the factory working classes are, or at least were like (back when we had factories); read the book.

This book is just AMAZING- I bought it with "Blessings of Guadalupe"by the same author, and i am really thrilled and impressed by the beauty of this talent; I am sure that Eryk Hanut's name will shine in the history of writing; Buy this book and you will acquire the same belief; His metaphors, sense of prose and lyricism are just matchless- Can't wait for the next book of Eryk Hanut!!

This was a terrific read for anyone interested in La Virgen. I wish all the books about her delivered like this one.

What a thoroughly delightful book. It was an informative and fun weave of history and personal journey. And funny! There were parts which are still causing me to laugh. This book is a treasure.

This book is dazzling- it begins as journalism and ends up as literature; A wonderful pilgrimage- and a wonderful read!!I can't wait for his other books!

This book is just superb! And I mean- SUPERB!!!!!!!!!Poetic,funny, acerbic- and so full of wisdom. I like his style- so irreverent and so deep at the same time. I will reread it often and will give it around.
I strongly recommend it- you got the point, right?
I met Eryk Hanut once- many years ago. I attended an opening for his artwork in Virginia Beach. I was with a friend (who was already sick and has died since)who admired and praised one of Mr. Hanut's Art pieces . She told him so and joked that she couldn't afford it; He left us and came back with the framed photograph that he had just took off the wall- and gave it to my friend. That's the kind of man he is.
Long live authors of his talent and originality!

Having travelled some what, I feel qualified to fairly assess 'The Paris Mapguide'. There are many guides of Paris on store bookshelves far more illistrated and far more detailed but they do not address the basic needs of a traveller standing on a Paris street. This publication meets all requirements, it is the right size,street maps and the 'Metro'are percise and very easy to read and the supporting information, be it city history,districts,places of interest etc, are all there.
'The Paris Mapguide' will facilitate an enjoyable visit to this beautiful city.

My family and I just came back from a week in Paris and wouldn't you know that we were there during the transportation strike and WALKED everywhere that we went. You can imagine my glee that I had this nifty little street map guide book to lead the way for us. We never got lost once with it and it is small and compact and fit into my pocketbook quite nicely. The streets and landmarks were clearly marked and easy to read. Also, at the beginning of the book, gives a list of the different sites, addresses and opening/closing times. We never could have done what we did if it wasn't for this little gem. Whenever we travel to another city again, the first thing that I will do is buy another for the city that I am going to.

What can I say that everyone hasn't already said. I am so happy that I purchased this map. I have 3 other maps of Paris, but none are as good as this one. I really like the way it is laid out. This would be the map that I would recommend to my friends.

tOGETHER WITH ITS COMPANION LONDON MAPGUIDE, AN EXTREMELY CONVENIENT, COMPLETE AND USEABLE MAP OF THE CITIES. POCKET SIZE AND VERY HELPFUL-HAVEN'T FOUND BETTER.

We went all over Paris using this mapguide. It was the best map for a large city that I ever used. It was our first ime to Paris and I was very comfortable getting around. I would highly recommend the Paris mapguide. We also used the London mapguide also and were just as pleased.

reading this book will surely improve your race driving technique and make you a more intelligent race driver. As the other reviewers have mentioned, this is *the* bible of race driving technique. Books like Ayrton Senna's Principles of Race Driving and Alain Prost's Competition Driving may have more flashiness and glamour, but Going Faster! is the reference textbook you'll be grabbing from your bookshelf regularly if you participate in HPDEs or autocrosses. There is no substitute for track time, but understanding the physics and theory behind car control and the real world racing line will help you avoid making time-wasting mistakes when you are actually on the track.

Even if you don't race and the closest you get to motorsports is the TV remote, this book will give you a better understanding of the technical nuances involved and make for a more enjoyable experience.

I bought this book prior to attending the Skip Barber Racing School, and it was the perfect preparation. The book goes into far more detail than the actual school has time for, so by internalizing it before attending the school, you are well prepared to put the theories into practice.

If the book has any flaw at all, it is that it treats race car driving like something that can be approached completely mathematically. When you're in a real car, instinct, courage, and judgment still count for a lot.

Going Faster is the recognized authority on the subject, and it might never be surpassed. It gets quite technical at times, and bears re-reading as one gains race experience. It is a bit too much for spectators, but for an ambitious racer, this book and seat time can take you to the winner's circle.

If I had one book about driving to recommend this would certainly be it. Skip Barber managed to cover pretty much every aspect of how to drive fast around a track in step-by-step, clear and easy to understand fashion. The book is well ilustrated and well structured.
I personaly haven't taken classes at his school, but I'm pretty shure that all the knowledge he tries to pass and his method are put down in words in this masterpiece. It's the closest from a racing driving class you can get without actually driving around a track with an instructor at your side.

From what I've read so far, it is a great book which covers the aspects of "Going Faster" (whad'ya know?) More theory, rather than dealing with the hands-on-at-the-track-i-need-to-make-sure-the-car-is-running-before-i-go-out, part. Great for people (like the book says) "who want to get into racing or want to appreciate more of what the pro's do when they're spectating from the stands. I haven't read Speed Secrets yet, but from what I read from the reviews, it should be similar.
Compared to Secrets of Solo Racing (which I have read), there's much more useful information for me, because it has more material covering driving rather than covering the entire autocrossing experience (volunteering, clean up, what to take to the track...you can get this from your close autocrossing friends. So focus on driving well with what you have).
All in all, main point is, great book if you want to learn how to drive fast.

This would be a beautiful coffee table book. It is even more helpful in planning plces to visit and reliving favorite memories from past trips.

Looking for a combination of Drives to get the best out of a Touring Holiday in the USA - you need this book! It is easy to link together many of the "120 Spectacular Road Trips" to form a fantastic itinerary to see the best scenery and sights the USA has to offer. It's better than the more specialised "Route 66" and "Lincoln Highway" drives for visitors to the USA who are wanting to experience a broader cross section of US history and its stunning geography. Maps are clear, colour photography whets the appetite and cultural and scenic highlights are picked out in the commentary. Combined with the use of a simple Tom Tom style GPS system the book would provide the solution for visitors planning a Touring experience of the USA - from the smallest local scale to an epic journey covering the best of the nation.

This book is a great help to make beautiful trips trough the country! Good descriptions and maps of the drives. You can search tours in all 50 states. Beautiful pictures!

I love to travel and this book will be a welcome reference for your road trips. Beautifully bound with gorgeous pictures, this book will please you for years to come.

This is a good and simple guide to the principle things to see and how to do it. Recommended for family travel

The Soul of Baseball illuminates what life can be. It would help anyone get past their bitterness and see that life is about what I can do today and not what happened yesterday or what will happen tomorrow.

Poz is one of the best writers in the business. Thanks for writing a really great book about a great baseball man. Buck's is a great American story and the way it's written makes you feel like you're on the road trip with them.

This book got to me, in a very good way.

Buck's stories are funny and poignant, and we as readers definitely learn some history if we pay attention. But even more than that we can learn from Buck O'Neil's outlook on life. He was patient, caring, outspoken in an articulate and positive way (something our politicians should learn how to do), and he had grace. More than anything else reading about Buck O'Neil was a lesson on how to live with grace.

I want to tell you the last words of the book, but I won't.

If you like baseball, people or life you will like this book.

Highly recommended!!

Sometimes a great author writes a 5-star book, and sometimes he must only get out of the way and let 5-star material shine through. "The Soul of Baseball" is one of the latter. This isn't a knock on Joe Posnanski. The decision to tell the story by reporting on a year in O'Neil's life, rather than interpreting O'Neil's history, was a brilliant judgment. The reader benefits from Posnanski's willingness to set his writer's ego aside.

Another good Posnanski decision was reporting O'Neil's occasional querulousness. Rather than seeing O'Neil as a mindless happy face, the reader sees O'Neil as someone who must work to maintain his positive approach. The occasional lapses serve to highlight the effort that O'Neil makes to bring the light into the lives of those around him.

But ultimately, the star of the book is Buck O'Neil. Not because he was a great ballplayer or manager. But because he was a decent, good-hearted human being whose attitude toward life is worthy of emulation.

I give few 5-star rankings, but this book deserves it several times over.

My son, Jeremy, always gives me good books. He doesn't just pick up the latest best-seller, but takes the time to choose something special just for me. He hit a home run with The Soul of Baseball by Joe Posnanski. It's the story of an extended road trip Posnanski took with legendary Negro League player and manager Buck O'Neil. The lessons learned along the way are great ones for sons and fathers to share.

Posnanski, an award-winning sports columnist for the Kansas City Star, chose not to write a biography of the irrepressible O'Neil, even though the story could bear to be told over and over again. Instead, he penned a moving memoir of the year he spent with the then-93-year-old O'Neil as he toured the country promoting the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City and the memory of those men who played the game in the days before whites and blacks could share the field. The trip takes them everywhere from Nicodemus, Kansas, to New York, New York, and O'Neil has a fascinating story to tell at every stop.

He talks about Satchel Paige, Willie Mays, and Josh Gibson, names that will always be enshrined in baseball's collective memory. But he also tells the tales of forgotten men like Dan Bankhead, the first black pitcher in the major leagues, who would have been a great hurler if he hadn't been afraid to pitch fastballs inside against white batters.

The key theme of the book is Buck O'Neil's spirit-lifting embrace of the best in every person he met. Despite years of back-breaking struggle, O'Neil never turned bitter, never condemned anyone for their prejudice, never had a bad word to say about the often ugly conditions the black ball players endured. Even when he failed to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, Buck O'Neil refused to be angry about it. To make up for the egregious mistake, the Hall awarded him a Lifetime Achievement Award after his death.

The lessons Posnanski drew from his experiences with O'Neil are well worth telling and the book he created from them is well worth reading.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds: A Novel of Scandal, Love and Death in the Congo

I have been a sports car enthusiast for almost 50 years. While my life doesn't parallel Buddy Polumbo's, I can relate to his coming of age in and around foreign sports cars. Although fiction, many of the locations that Buddy travels to are real tracks and small towns that I frequented in my youth. The same with the bars and restaurants. The variety of characters belonging to the SCCA (SCCM) and participating in these sports car events are people that I was able to relate to. Perhaps they were the very same individuals. The sports car community was a small group of colorful enthusiasts, all motivated to be involved for different reasons, but the sport was fueled by those with the money to support the racing habit. For those of us that can relate that past era, The Last Open Road is great read. I cannot wait to start Burt Levy's other books.

The Last Open Road
This story starts off with a young man that is called Buddy Palumbo. He has a friend that he trusts very well and no one else would listen to him the same way. Something vey bad happens to him and he got handed some of his responsibilities at the Sinclair. He never actually got hired when he started working there. They just started to pay him. His dad did not want him to grow up and be a grease monkey he told him to work with the Union. A very rich man that owns oil rigs all over the United States. He owns some of the very nicest cars that included Cadillac's and Jaguar. No one has ever seen or heard of them. Buddy got the opportunity to work on them and soon after he figured them out he was the only mechanic allowed to work on them.
I liked this book because I am interested in driving and racing cars. It was fun to read because it was so realistic and talks about real cars and real mechanical problems they have. I can relate to the people in this book because I race and I understand their family problems. You will figure out what I am talking about when you read this book.

mid-prairie teen

B.S. Levy's The Last Open Road is a great read for anyone who is interested in wrenching on cars, particularly classics. I'm college age and I can relate to Buddy Palumbo in a lot of cases. If you're familiar with older British cars, there's some unique humor there as well. Great read.

This is a well-written and enjoyable book that elicits images that are very familiar to folks who were teen-agers during the wonderful 1950's. It is almost as though I know the characters and can easily apply familiar names of real people in my past to them. Highly recommended reading, especially for car enthusiasts!

If you grew up in the 50's or 60's and knew a sports car from Detroit iron, and lusted after the former...than this is your book. This is a tour de force of the origins, excitement and naivete of what the attraction was for those weekend racers. Buddy Palumbo is this loveable amateur mechanic, hang-around carguy who through luck and heft manages to have the rides of his life at one of the first sport car tracks in the US. What you will enjoy is the reality of the details of the cars, the attitudes of those in and around the machines, the helter-skelter ways you drove in those days... and that BS Levy has captured this period in his own time machine for you. If you are a carguy, you cannot put this book down, and you will laugh your head off turning some of the pages as Bert reminds you of how we were. I had just reread Kerouwac's On the Road when I picked up Bert's book at the Monterey Historics at Laguna Seca...because it had a XK120 on the cover which was my first car...and because Bert, himself, was there guaranteeing me I'd love it. He was so right! I'm now onto his next novel, Montzuma'a Ferrari, which takes place on the Carrera Panamericana (translates The Mexican Road Race). Bert is a true race car fan and driver and describes emotions and thrills like you are there with him. I passed the book onto my car club members and its still being read and recirculated. This is a read to savor...enjoy!

Very good book for single male and females,Alot fo useful information, however i feel the book is written toward the womens perspecive of dating rather then the male (dont forget a women wrote the book). She lists the dos and dont's for soul mates but the reality is that very few of us have all those traits. Dont expect perfection whether its personalty, looks, money, career, interets, etc. I feel that the book is geared toward someone wanting the whole package, especailly on the women side. I've read better. There are other books that are geared toward men and these books talks about one night stance and long term relationships.

Again, this book "excuse me your soul mate is waiting" is very usefull if you are really picky or looking for close to perfection

This book was really fun to read. It has a lot of info we know but tend to forget or realize. I finish reading this book in 2 days. I wish I can remember all the advice that the author stated. I may have to read it again.

I have read several books on relationships and I must say, 'Excuse Me, Your Soul Mate is Waiting' is one of the best. Marla makes a number of key observations that are bang on. The examples she cites are very powerful and each chapter concludes with helpful "exercises". As a matchmaker, the author has a unique perspective and peppers the book with anecdotes and insights from her years matching males and females. She does a good job of appealing to both men and women (although she uses slightly more female examples.

Marla gives the impression that she knows what she's talking about, and hasn't spent all this time in the matchmaking business without gleaning some valuable advice to pass along. In a field where most think about what they can get, Marla reminds us that, though it is important to have a clear picture of what we want, it's also important to think about what we can give. Her friendly style makes this a pleasure to read!

I loved this book. It was so encouraging and inspiring. If you've dated a gazillion frogs, this book will give you hope. The author's style is conversational and easy to read. I plan to write some of the affirmations on cards and refer to them often. Marla Martenson has written a book on relationships that feels hopeful, but realistic. You'll love this book.