Resorts Books

John L'Heureux has a disturbing and salient view of people and their inherent foilbles. His writing always entrances, this book no exception.

Having read and loved A Woman Run Mad, I couldn't wait to read another one of John L'Heureux's novels. The Miracle is the dark, thought-provoking tale of a charismatic, albeit somewhat arrogant priest and his trials and struggles as his chastity and faith take a turn toward disaster. Paul LeBlanc's life isn't the same after he is transferred from his South Boston parish to a small church in New Hampshire. When a teenage girl awakens after she had been pronounced dead from a drug overdose, Paul is convinced that the occurrence is a miracle. However, his life falls apart after he embarks on an affair with a woman and the teenage girl dies in an accident not long after the drug scare. There are some staggering, ironic twists throughout the novel.

The Miracle has the sort of disarming and dark language that I loved in A Woman Run Mad. John L'Heureux is a great author. I love his ironic language and disturbing stories. I look forward to reading more of his books. In the meantime, I highly recommend this gem...

Any writer who attempts to create a work of fiction with a priest as a protagonist is facing a great challenge. Writers such as George Bernanos and Graham Greene masterfully set the standard to which all other works in this genre are compared. Though THE MIRACLE will probably never be in the same category as DIARY OF A COUNTRY PRIEST or THE POWER AND THE GLORY, John L'Heuroux's Fr. Paul Le Blanc is a multi-dimensional character in a relatively good piece of fiction.

THE MIRACLE tells the story of Fr. Paul Le Blanc, a maverick priest in Boston. He is handsome and ready to change the world. The novel takes place in the early 1970's, and Le Blanc is faced with the issues of the day: the aftermath of Vatican II, the debate raging around artificial birth control, Vietnam, and since the novel takes place in Boston, involuntary busing to end desegregation in Boston's Public Schools. Le Blanc, like many young priests, is liberal on these matters, and as a result is sent to a new parish here he has to face his own inadequacies and spiritual trials. His life changes when he is transferred to a new parish and witnesses a miracle, not of his own doing, and he is forced to reexamine his life. He does this through his encounters with a wide range of interesting characters: Fr. Moriarty, a priest with ALS; Rose, the housekeeper and her troubled daughter Mandy; Msgr. Glynn, a loyal churchman; and Annaka Malley, a young parishioner questioning her own life.

The book's chief strength is that it does not fall victim to stereotypes. Le Blanc is not a raging alcoholic, a womanizer,.... an atheist, or if it were written today,..... He is a priest who has the ability to minister wonderfully to others, but has difficulty integrating the message in his own life. This is probably a more accurate depiction of what truly ails many priests today, especially as many try to rebuild a church destroyed by the actions of some of their brother priests and the bishops who covered up the matter. We see a man tormented by inner struggles, but these struggles do not seem to interfere with his ministry, though they do interfere with his relationship with God.

If the main character of the book is so strong, why does it only rate three stars?

Though the book is filled with many colorful characters and the plot moves quickly due to L'Heureux's fluid style, the work is not without its problems. There are some clichés. For example, the young, radical priest being sent to an out of the way parish to care for a sick pastor and learn humility reminds the reader of the film THE CARDINAL. His encounter with an Annaka Malley, one of the female characters, has been told again and again in other writings. People familiar with Boston's history will know that the leader of the Archdiocese at the time, Cardinal Humberto Medeiros was an outspoken critic of those opposed to busing, and his position made him reviled in Boston, unlike the bishop of the book who does not want to cause a stir. A bishop who was socially liberal but theologically conservative, as Medeiros was, conflicting with Le Blanc, would probably strengthen the book. Keep in mind, I write this as a native Bostonian. I also did not have a feeling that I was reading a book about a priest in the 1970's, as much as a book about a priest of the 1990's put in a 1970's setting.

Even though it is not a perfect book, readers familiar with Catholicism who enjoy exploring the faith through fiction will undoubtedly enjoy the book as I did.

I impulsed bought this book, which usually means I am not going to like it. However, I found the story very interesting. While the plot line was predictable, it was still one of those books I could not put down. While it was a good read, I believe that many of the issues that were raised- the supernatural, faith, doubt- were not dealt with in a serious manner.

There is something about this book that kept me awake,made me a bit nervous and then made me want to lay down in a quiet meadow and read the whole thing again. Heureux's work reads like poetry. Its spare lyricism possesses surprises at every turn...sudden whimsy, sudden anger, sudden eroticism, sudden sin, and sudden wit, the kind that is rooted in bright hope. This book is more than a story although the elements of story are powerfully present. Something makes me think it might be life-changing. If there IS a God, that is.

Well written farce. Kirn truly understands the ridiculousness found in the Rocky Mountain West. Well worth the read.

Many reviewers here attempt to recount the plot of this story, which is not easy to do in a few words, given the two main characters' frame of reference - a matriarchal religious community in the hinterlands of Montana. Sent on a mission to bring in new converts, they are classic fish out of water, sometimes mistaken for Mormon missionaries. Setting out into the big wide world of American materialism, they fairly quickly lose their way, winding up among some wealthy high-end consumers who represent various marginal religious beliefs of their own.

The opportunity, which Kirn seizes by the throat, is for a satiric vision that doesn't so much deny the validity of religious principle as gently ridicule those who use it for their own selfish ends. Religion, as it's practiced by the novel's characters, is as much common sense as it is nonsense. Finally, returning home after eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, the narrator finds himself in a Garden of Eden myth of his own - unexpected, but waiting there in plain sight for any reader looking back over the whole story.

A somewhat meandering novel, it is packed with closely observed detail. Page after page entertains with droll wit that sees through the self-indulgence and self-serving rationalizations of its cast of characters, as well as the thin veneer of reason and order that covers the heart of American darkness. I laughed out loud often and reread parts for the sheer cleverness of the writing. Fans of Kurt Vonnegut and Tom Robbins will enjoy Kirn's wry humor and off-kilter brand of satire.

Walter Kirn is a very amusing writer, and this American fable certainly reflects that. You can read the story synopsis from Publisher's Weekly above, so suffice it to say that this book exudes a false nostalgia for a true America that (of course) never existed. Big obvious targets like religion and consumerism are lampooned, but there is also a more subtle wit weaving around the dialogue and even in Mason (the narrator's) voice.

One problem with comic novels is that the joke usually gets tired, or the plot gets so silly, one loses interest. By writing Mission to America in the form of a folktale, Kirn is able to elude this problem to a degree. And by being an extraordinarily witty writer, he may be on the verge of joining others who have transcended the form, like Joseph Heller and Roger Kaputnik.

The shrinking population of the Aboriginal Fulfilled Apostles (AFA) has led to a crisis--new bloodlines must be introduced into the community if they wish to continue--as it has for more than 147 years.

This isolationist sect has lived, tucked into the hills of rural Montana and led by matriarchs who follow the edicts of their Seeress to maintain a life of modesty and nutritional vigilance. Ennis Lauer, the only wealthy member of the faith, has handpicked a group of young men for an unheard-of mission--seeking out "brides" in mainstream America.

Mission to America tells the story of one of these pairs: Mason LaVerle and Elder Stark, as they leave Bluff, Montana and travel to Colorado, bringing their message of clean living to world-weary Americans.

Walter Kirn's fifth novel focuses on Mason, a naif bewildered by the choices and depravity as they begin their journey. They try Ennis Lauer's sale-closing techniques often used by con men and used car salesmen.

Where Mason is naive and calm, Elder Stark has sharp edges and chaotic energy. Asserting his leadership early on,Stark quickly develops an appetite for reality television and America's junk food. These appetites are what make him the natural choice as Lauer's ambassador in his bid to usurp leadership of the AFA.

When lampooning America's hunger for spiritual gurus, author Kirn is at his best. Using Mason to mirror America's lack of moral compass works to illuminate the fear and dearth of spirituality at the core of most of the selfish choices made each day. In a post 9-11 world, this novel can be an indictment of the spiritual journey many Americans claim to have embarked on, although in reality, they are caught up in the soulless world of reality TV and idle consumerism.

Armchair Interview says: Mission to America leaves the reader questioning the nature of faith, the quest for understanding and wondering how much of Kirn's early childhood experiences with the Mormon church are reflected within the character of Mason.

This novel is a bit thin and under-achieving, though it is subversively funny and very observant about some uncomfortable truths in American religion. With a sly and somewhat understated use of humor and offbeat characters that reminds me a bit of Carl Hiaasen, Walter Kirn tells the story of an inbred Mormon-like cult that is on the verge of extinction, and the two hapless missionaries who go forth into the outside world (i.e. the American West) to preach to new recruits and bring them back to the commune as fresh genetic material. The two missionaries, who grew up in their na?ve and isolationist compound, are totally bewildered by what they see out in America, while the potential new recruits who are receptive to their preaching aren't exactly the pick of the litter. Kirn uses these plot devices to explore how an outsider would perceive the weirdness of Middle America, in its unfocused religious fanaticism and worship of power and money. Some of the unfavorable reviews here have criticized Kirn's rather weak character developments and some unrealized potential in the plot, and I can agree with those criticisms. But I find this novel to be a winner because of Kirn's subversive and uncomfortably insightful observations on America's religious and social underbelly. [~doomsdayer520~]

This book centers on the major theme of individuality and conformity. Though it could be argued that since both characters were destroyed because of their need to be individuals, I believe there is a different point behind it all. In several instances, these boys try and find the hypocritical people in society. They hate a certain gang at school for their bully persona to only emulate that themselves. Their mentor talks about going against the man and capitalism, when he himself came from a very rich capitalist background and benefits from it.

This is a somewhat dark novel that shows the shallowness of several characters. All the characters are dynamic and go through several changes. The book was truly gripping in its delivery and style; I read the book in one setting because of not being able to put it down. I did not grow up around such conditions while going through high school, but since I am not that far removed from the environment, I related to this book fairly well. A good book that is worth a look

In response to Jaydekitten's comments, I do not believe that Mr. Moore was conveying a message intended to discourage non-conformist thought and behavior. In point of fact - and his book amply demonstrates this - most teens (of any generation) lack the empirical life knowledge, the bumps and bruises and contusions that the adult experience delivers, to make a considered choice and proclaim "I don't want to be a part of that." They are still evolving as humans.

Consider, for instance, the video tape released last year of Columbine killers Klebold and Harris taking the day off for a little target practice in the woods near their suburban Colorado home. There is a smug arrogance about the duo, a simmering hatred of everything and everybody who doesn't respect their self-entitled right to be "different", that is so undeserved. Simply put, these are kids who couldn't accept and adjust to the amplified traumas and social blunders of high school, for cyin' out loud, so how were they ever to adapt to the "real world"? From my point of view, what we witness with Eric and Tom and Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold is harsh Darwinian theory in action, the universe, if you will, stepping in and straightening out a couple of design flaws; unfortunately and tragically, a few innocents usually get taken out of line in the process.

Yet another installment in a series of books tackling the issues that plague suburban youth, except this time it's set in the 1980's. While overall I enjoyed this book, I can't help but feel that the topic of teenagers and drugs has been done to death. "Too Much of Nothing" opens with the narrator Eric retelling the story of his murder. The reader witnesses as Eric relives his struggles to break free from his conforming to society standards and to present himself as an individual. In order to achieve this goal, he gives into his friend Tom's hoodlum wannabe antics. While Tom procliams himself as being a non-conformist, he reveals that he is easily swayed by other people's opinions and ideals.

My biggest problem with this book is that I couldn't quite grasp the point that Michael Scott Moore was attempting to present to the reader. Non-conformism is a dangerous thing? Because attempting to be an individual turns Tom's life into shambles and the second Eric steps away from his moral ideals, it gets him killed. And I promise that wasn't a spoiler, you know from the beginning that he dies :) Furthermore, the ending was too open and rushed for my tastes. And for as short as this novel is, I think Moore tried to tackle too many social issues and jam in too many pop culture references. It was overkill. In conclusion, while "Too Much of Nothing" was a quick and intriguing read, I would in no way consider it life-altering or flawless.

The author of this book is not trying to say "non-conformism" is a dangerous thing" (see below). The novel is a subtle satire on American counterculture; it shows how some people who talk the loudest about individualism and freedom don't know the first thing about either one. I thought it was dark and funny.

Since finishing the book, it has been in my thoughts frequently; it is a gauge against which I compare my own experiences growing up with the characters Moore has created. The author and I grew up in the same area, only a couple of years apart; we attended the same highschool for a couple of overlapping years, and a number of the locations he has so successfully described in the abstract are readily identifiable as "real" locations in our hometown. The imagery that he manages to pull up elicits a gut level comprehension of the Los Angeles climate. Los Angeles is constantly buzzing with activity, a proof of the converse of the adage "still waters run deep." The surface buzz of Los Angeles is sizable, its populace constantly vibrating on the edge of the now and the next, but with limited consideration for what comes after "next," or the past. Los Angeles isn't so much "sunny" as in a state of constant "glare." The sky isn't blue, nor is it often brown with smog; it's usually a matte silver tone -- a color that tends to simply amplify the sun's natural brightness to a dizzying shine that makes things stand out intensely. But over time that glare damages that which it shines upon, simply by its own intensity. Moore's novel is like that as well. As clearly as it depicts the world we lived in, it also has worn some of the polish from it.

With regard to another review that posits that deviation from the norm is what leads to the death of the main character, I read it as the reverse: Eric is brought down because of a critically mistimed attempt at bald honesty. It has less to do with conformity than a lack of emotional tools in youth to deal with difficult situations, or to reason out their consequences.

This was supposed to be used a coffee table book, but there are barely any pictures to along with the lame descriptions. Some of the courses listed are super private...guess i will die unfulfilled.

I bought this book as a gift for my boyfriend and he loves it. We have chosen one of the golf courses to visit on our honeymoon--Teeth of the Dog in the D.R. If you know someone who enjoys golf and likes to travel, buy them this book.

I don't care for golf too much, but I gave this as a gift. This is the perfect gift for an avid golfer.

The photo's and the script makes me want to visit every place. Very relaxing and something to look forward to.

My brother is an avid golfer so he really enjoys the history and little known facts about the "best" courses.

If you like hot springs, this is the book for you! The most information in the easiest format to follow. The directions are better than most other books like it, Really I haven't found a hot spring book that compares, this one has been around a long time and it's still the best. Also has been revised so its up to date.

I got into hiking and discovered hotsprings a few years ago. This book is a great guide and map to many great springs all over the South west and more.
Def. reccomend it for the adventurer

By using the GPS coordinate, we had a lot of fun searching the hot springs in the Mammoth Lakes area. The only reason I give it 4 stars is there is a wrong GPS coordinate (reading the direction eventually got me there). Great book.

This is probably the best hot spring book in existence for the southwestern U.S.. It is great, it has everything you need. Beyond the locations themselves, the book lists temperature of the pools, driving direcetions, driving conditions, exact GPS coordinates, accessability and a great description of the springs along with some black and white pictures. It has all of the major hot springs in it (I am sure there are still some minor ones on private property). I have been to a couple of the sites in the book and it was easy to find them. I would highly recommend this book.

I gave this four stars because most of the book is awesome and we've good experiences with the other additions. My wife and I love to travel to natural hot springs and we bought this after visiting most of the springs in the Northwest US.
We bought this edition just to get some idea of the springs in Texas. There is only one listed though which is pretty inaccurate. Nothing in the Austin area is included but the stuff in Hawaii was right on!

Great easy read! Found myself hoping and praying the chartacters wouldn't do what they were planning....

This is a book of love and healing. I found this to be a fast page turner. You get to know the charactors, and wand to keep knowing more. I thought the story was pretty realistic. There was no fairy tale sappy ending for the different charactors. All in all this is a great summer read!

I found the book a little boring. I don't usually write reviews, but I read them all the time. I read this book based upon other reviews and was disappointed in this book. The characters were not developed well at all. The story was slow moving. This was my first Hilderbrand book and I will give her one more try in hopes that this was just not one of her better books.

I wasn't so sure about this book when I first received it. I have not read anything else by Elin Hilderbrand, but decided to give it a try, knowing it was pretty much the last book I hadn't read in the house. WAS I GLAD THAT I DID!!! Wow, this book pulls you in with a captivating story line and just when you think it's about over, surprise! Another twist to keep you coming back for more. This pulled at my heart, trying to make tears come to my eyes. I'm not one for books that you know what will happen or how they will turn out, but this book is not one of them. And I am sooo glad it isn't! Please read if you have some extra time on your hands, you'll be thankful you did!

This is my second Hilderbrand book. I like the way she writes. Her characters are believable. There is usally something in the story that hits home. This was a good read. Defintely recommended.

For a book that claims to be lyical and class concious, it fails miserably. All class sterotypes from the knocked-up Indian girl, who works as a maid to the rich on Beck's Point (Harbor Point, Michigan) to putting down the Jews at nearby Charlevoix, as being noveux and crass, this book contains all of the attitudes of a spoiled child of Midwestern industialists. Even the wealthy materfamilias happens to be "Catholic" and dies in a fire. A Repubican WASP point of view is contained throughout this novel. Now that this hardcover book is remaindered, the 44 cents price seems fair.

Our local library reading club is here in the San Francisco Bay area, where the author of "The Water Dancers," Ms Terry Gamble, resides. We were able to enlist her the other evening to join our review session covering her novel. It's too bad that most readers will never enjoy the good fortune of a somewhat informal chat with an author while discussing one of her recent works and how she goes about her craft. It provides a very different perspective.

I first read "The Water Dancers" six months ago and recommended it to our reading club. In preparation for Ms Gamble's attendance, I gave the novel a second reading last week, which for me is always the ultimate test of a novel's real worth. During a second read do the characters still seem interesting and fresh? Does a rereading of the dialog provide new character insights? Are there elements of prose and style and structure that went unnoticed during the initial read because attentions were so fixed on plot points? And for this reader, "The Water Dancers" holds up as an exceptional novel, even with a second reading.

Potential readers out there can gather the main plot points from any number of other reviews, so I won't bother to repeat them here. I only gave "The Water Dancers" four stars, but I'm a hard grader. Most of the novels I pick up and read these days rate two or perhaps three stars, and often that's because I'm feeling compassionate. One of the principle strengths of this novel is the way the Indian characters are drawn. I read a lot of novels covering the Native American cultures, and I've grown more than tired of the patronizing way Indian characters always seem to be presented with extra sensory mystical insights into the religious beyond, and the supernatural powers to spot the Great White Buffalo stampeding across the distant plain. Terry Gamble's characters of Rachel Winnapee, Ben Winnapee and Honda Jackson act, talk and feel to the reader like real people experiencing and reacting to the real world. Two of the novel's most powerful scenes occur in the beginning and ending, when Rachel's grandmother and Lydia March appear to Rachel as ghost-like apparitions rising into the sky as they die in the flames of their burning houses. And yet these scenes did not feel to a reader like something from The X-Files.

On the other hand, the white characters (with the exception of Ada and Bliss and Hank) seem so uniform in their physical, intellectual and emotional weaknesses that, for me, it becomes the principle shortcoming of the novel. At times the novel seems to incorporate the cliché that white people descended from wealth are evil by definition. By the end of the novel Ms Gamble is able to imbue some of these characters with more depth and understanding, but I wish she would have done it from the beginning. And then again, maybe that's just me.

I loved that the sparse physical descriptions of the characters worked so well as a contrast to the detailed descriptions of all the surrounding physical geography. Ms Gamble's repeated descriptions of Rachel's hair as wild and "unbraided" was one of the subtle guides to our understanding of Rachel.

But the real reason to pick up and read "The Water Dancers" is the prose. The writing within the novel is exceptional. Sentence structures are direct, rhythmic, paced, and always graceful. Those adjectives don't seem to fit together, but Terry Gamble's prose makes it all work. The novel was such an easy read that at the end you will need to stop and draw a breath to remind yourself just how good it was.

Ms Gamble has another novel due out next year. So pick up "The Water Dancers" now, enjoy the read, and wait with baited breath like the rest of us for her upcoming novel.

I was spellbound by this book- the depth & originality of the characters, the nuance in which their drama unfolds, the richness of the different worlds & settings they inhabit. A great read!!

Like author Terry Gamble (of Proctor and Gamble lineage), I've spent nearly every summer of my life in and around Harbor Springs, Michigan, a small Northern Michigan resort community on the Little Traverse Bay. Gamble has drawn from her childhood memories spent on Harbor Point to create the lush settings for Water Dancers, using thinly veiled pseudonyms for Harbor Point (Beck's Point), Harbor Springs (Moss Village), Petoskey (Chibawasee), and Cross Village (Horseshoe Lake).

The novel's protagonist, Rachael Winnapee, is a sixteen-year old Odawa orphan from Horseshoe Lake who, since the death of her grandmother, has lived at the Indian School in Moss Village (the actual school is alongside the Holy Childhood of Jesus Catholic Church in Harbor Springs), and like many First Nations orphans, is sent to be a domestic at Beck's Point.

The novel begins in 1945. Rachael ends up serving the March family from St. Louis. The March's sons are both overseas fighting, Lip in Belgium and Woody in the Pacific Theater. When Lip is killed in battle and Woody comes home an amputee and morphine addict, it is up to Rachel to help make Woody whole. The two begin a brief, intense love affair, sealed with seashells, hidden gifts, lovemaking in dunes, shallows and empty rooms, and finally, Rachael's unwanted pregnancy.

Rachel raises her son Ben on her own, continuing to live with the midwives who delivered her child. After nine years of helping out on their farm, Rachel moves back to Horseshoe Lake with Ben. The novel fast forwards to Ben's experiences fighting in Vietnam and his difficult readjustment to civilian life, and culminates in an unexpected and explosive conclusion in which the past is confronted and old ghosts laid to rest.

Water Dancers is a multifaceted novel of healing (three of the main characters are veterans), of class and race, duty, discovering inner strength, and seeking peace. The characters are poetically and lovingly crafted, down to the most minor details. Terry Gamble's first novel deliciously brings to life the many moods of water and forest that dominate life in Northern Michigan, and for those who are familiar with Northern Michigan, like Rachael's habit of licking stones, this novel will bring you home.

I loved this book. It is spare and poetic and packs a real punch. I could feel and see and smell the setting (Beck's Point) in Michigan, and felt that the characters were real and compelling. It was hard to let them go. I bought three other copies to give to friends.
This love story is set among the richest AND the poorest in American society--their interactions and assumptions about each other, and Rachel and Woody's attempts to bridge the gap are wonderfully rendered.
I hope Terry Gamble writes another novel soon. I'll be first in line at the bookstore.

This book felt like a trip back in time. It is well researched with great photographs and wonderful first person accounts. Highly recommended.

Asbury Park's Glory Days: The Story of An American Resort gave me a glimpse of what Asbury Park was and hopefully can be again. The history was fascinating and very complete. The illustrations also gave me a good feel as to the Asbury of the past and what was then a thriving city. The book was a bit choppy having to go back and forth between text and illustrations but was worth the trouble. When I visit Asbury Park today, I see hope and revival and tremendous possibilities for a new and exciting and vibrant city.

This book is "must reading" for those fortunate enough to have experienced some of "Asbury Park's Glory Days."
The book refreshes old memories, restores lost ones and fills in the missing pieces.
Don't wait until it is out of print and no longer available!

Pike has combined a tremendous amount of archival material together with her insights and writing talent to create a charming, memorable book about the history of Asbury Park. The city by the sea is much more than the resting place of the Morro Castle and "Asbury Park's Glory Days" doesn't miss a beat. The book is full of surprises -- We know that Bruce Springtime got his start there, but Bud Abbot? Or that Tiny Tim had a "gay-friendly tearoom" there?
Sidebars from old newspapers are priceless: "...While Asbury park is fighting over the best means of advertising the town that it may live and flourish, Long Branch is looking for a hole in which to crawl and die to escape funeral expenses." (1890)
"Glory Days" includes stories of the old hotels, the vacationers who visited them, and the locals who serviced them; beauty contests, baby parades, architecture, Lorenzo Harris' spectacular sand sculpture... and the Stone Pony. "Glory Days" is a cornucopia of photos, stories and memoralbia in a beautifully designed format. It's a must for any shore lover.
Margaret T. Buchholz, author of "Great Storms of the Jersey Shore", "Shore Chronicles" and "New Jersey Shipwrecks: 350 years in the Graveyard of the Atlantic."

Freelance writer and photographer Helen-Chantal Pike has seen her work featured in many top publications: her interest in history and photography melds perfectly in her Asbury Park's Glory Days: The Story Of An American Resort. While recent years have not been good to Asbury Park, New Jersey, with many of the boardwalk thrill rides, exciting movie premiers, and resort attractions fallen into disarray, victims of political corruption, Asbury Park's Glory Days re-creates the region's heyday between 1890 and 1980, adding insights into the area's boom and recession cycles and explaining how these cycles linked to Asbury Park's attractions. Packed with vintage photos throughout, any New Jersey resident or fan will find Asbury Park's Glory Days to provide them with an intriguing glimpse of a colorful past.

I am a repeat customer of Peoples Choice Guide Cancun and the new 2008 edition is fantastic. There are many helpful improvments, such as you can now search by Food Category and the Proximity Guide where you can quickly locate Restaurants and Clubs close to your Hotel.

I live in Cancun and even as a resident this book is most helpful. Locals have to eat out too. When I travel I always try to find a Travel Guide before I plan my trip. It would be great if this guide was available for other travel hotspots.

I imagine it is hard to keep any travel guide current, with name changes, business closings, new places, etc. but the author states that he makes frequent trips to Cancun to allow for the most up to date information at the time the guide goes to print.

This book would be a great resource if only it were up to date. I carried it to Cancun with me, and the majority of the restaurants that we chose from the book are either gone or have changed their name. One place ("Captains Cove") was highly recommended for breakfast. It just happened to be right across the street from our resort. We walked over on our first morning there, only to find it closed. "Breakfast served on Sunday's only" was on the door. After the first two days there, I stuck the book back in the suitcase.

I bought this book for a young couple headed to Cancun on their honeymoon! They loved it. (And they said the book wasn't bad either.)

Although you have to know going in that the age of the book will mean many of the restaraunts will ahve closed, we still found this to be the only useful source of reviews.

Easy to read and understand info on nearly all hotels, restaurants & clubs in the Cancun tourist area. I really like that the location is pinpointed to like km 6.5 for example. Most directions in other ads and publications are to the nearest km marker so you may be trying to find a place for a half mile or so. Tough to do when you are dodging the Cancun taxis on the divided highway running for about 29 km through the hotel zone.

Helpful and informative on which places other travelers like and dislike. I travel to Cancun regularly and found new places to try in this easy to carry book.

I recommend this book for new or repeat visitors to Cancun.

In the 1940s and early 1950s, polio epidemics spread across the United States, severely damaging the health -- and overall lives -- of many individuals, mainly children. Susan Richards, who'd been struck by the virus as a baby, was one.

At age eleven, Susan was sent to Warm Springs, a Georgia hospital and research facility where she would live among other polio patients for nearly two years. During this time, she underwent numerous painful operations as doctors struggled to help her walk and overall improve the quality of her life.

In her memoir, Shreve recalls her experiences at Warm Springs -- other children she befriended, the young priest on whom she developed a crush, her feelings of guilt over having "caused so much trouble" for her family.

While her anecdotes are overall frank and promising, the author unfortunately tends to go around in circles without much of a plot. Too many pages to count are consumed by Susan's endless jaunts throughout the hospital grounds, not really culminating in anything in particular. Frequently she sets up an element -- such as her younger brother's issues with the lifelong disruption of his nuclear family -- but fails to take it anywhere. Other times, she abruptly switches from her adolescent self to a voice clearly grown, using phrases referring to her marriage and children. This is both jarring and, again, refers to things that are never actually explained in any significant detail.

Finally, the author relies quite heavily upon the fact that Roosevelt, also a polio victim, had once stayed at Warm Springs and essentially ensured the facility's existence. Readers might appreciate a bit of background about the former president in order to gain more context about the illness and Warm Springs itself, but Shreve uses a significant chunk of her book talking about the life of Roosevelt -- giving the distinct impression of unsuccessfully searching for filler material.

If I wanted a biography of Roosevelt, I would have sought one...

This is a beautiful book, a perfect memoir. Susan Richards was stricken with polio as a baby, and her devoted mother(and father) sent her to Warm Springs, GA to try and help her walk normally again. Certainly not the sickest child at the haven created by FDR, Susan was by far the most spirited.

This is her very honest recollection of her time spent at Warm Springs from age 11 to 12. She details in heartbreaking detail the relationship between herself and her mother, and between herself and the other "characters" at Warm Springs; Father James, Joey Buckley, Caroline Slover, Magnolia, Paisley Jean, Rosie. She also paints a self portrait of a brave yet fearful girl trying to find her way in the world despite her disability.

I have given this book to my 12 year old daughter to read. It is a lovely book that changes the way you see the world.

When I was a boy we had this lady come into my creative writing class at school, and she read to us from one of her novels. Many of us fell in love with her at first sight, and especially when she began reading the pages of her book, for her voice as many now know, is low and enchanting, the sort of voice that could launch a thousand ships. She was born a little too early to get into the phone sex business but she could have cleaned up! Now comes the tragic story of her heartwarming travails back in the late 40 and early 50s, when she was one of the "polios," as they called themselves, installed among other children in the long hot hospital they called "Warm Springs."

in little Susan's day, the specter of Franklin Roosevelt, the most famous polio victim, was ever present. His photo was in the office of the main doctor, and the little children toasted to his memory (the President had died only five years before, keeping the extent of his paralysis a top state secret, but among the stricken, he was always eager to share).

She was a difficult child born to a wonderful mother who was a top chef and did everything perfectly. Stuck in Warm Springs, her fantasy life really took off and she was forced to be the roommate of sullen, disapproving Caroline, and also she found herself a little boyfriend called "Joey Buckley," which made living in the enforced conditions of Warm Springs a bit more bearable. Her mother sent her many clippings to read, but only one book, oddly enough it was Shirley Jackson's THE LOTTERY, which Susan didn't read but Caroline did.

She had a strange but understandable passion for Father James, the hospital padre, who could make any girl forget her vows. A charming man, James had what we would call today, "charisma." I enjoyed this book but came to feel that she, Susan, was spinning out tale after tale based on tiny scraps of memory, for no one could remember all that, but embroidery is what the novelist does best: we learned that long ago at Ms. Richards Shreve's knee back in the classroom at school.

I was anxious to read this book because like the author, I spent a good part of my childhood life in Warm Springs. I truly enjoyed this memoir which brought back memories and feelings of my own childhood. I laughed and cried and relived many of the author's experiences which were very similar to my own. The book is very well written and I have lent it out to friends that have not had any ties to polio, except knowing me. Everyone has enjoyed this light and entertaining reading.

Being a post-polio survivior myself, I took great interest in this true account of a young girl's memory of her years there. I was a little disappointed in the building up of Joey's "flying thru the air" to the actual account of his breaking of both his legs...and thats all that was said of that. I gathered she was forced to leave after that,
as the story seems to abruptly end right after that.
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of Warm Springs and FDR's Splendid Deception. ( His bout with Polio at Warm Springs.)