this book allowed for one of the nicest vacations i have ever taken. more than bourbon street indeed; if you're into historical along with fun, good food, and the infamous celebratory attitude then this is the book you're looking for! it covers everything you can imagine plus the historical information with the descriptions that follow the maps for the various tours is priceless. we didn't take one tour save the plantation *oak alley* tour; didn't need to! the maps along with the additional information is all you need to create your own walking tours, driving excursions and much much more. i would also allow that personally i did read another book: Fabulous New Orleans by Lyle Saxon. the combination of the two really compliment one another. just my opinion. again, great book; i sincerely can't say enough.

Having visited NO before and having read three other "Guides" I was suprised by how different this book was from the others and how everything I personally wanted to know about was adressed in detail. Walking the Faubourgs is the best way to appreciate the very unique city behind the tourist hype and Mr. Delahanty tells you how. Other guide books are collections of data gathered from many sources, but this is a story told by someone who knows and loves his subject. Our morning walks through the Bayou St. John neighborhood for coffee on Esplanade Ave. were greatly enhanced by the information in the "Esplanade Ridge" section. The history is so much more amazing than the garishness of Bourbon St. My daughter, a six year resident of NO, is planning her wedding there and has found this an invaluable resource. There is an address and telephone number for everything. I am recommending this book to all of her wedding guests and buying a second copy for myself, having given mine to her. If you plan a trip to New Orleans, read this book before you go and carry it with you while you are there.

New Orleans' unique food, music, architecture, and people have been justly celebrated and explained to out of towners and locals alike in many, many books. Why one more?

Randolph Delehanty's answer to that question would be, I suppose (I have never spoken with him), that most guidebooks miss the essence of our city: the varied streets - from the carriage-wide alleyways of the Vieux Carre to the grand boulevards of St. Charles and Esplanade Avenues - which tie together our rich architectural heritage and cultural history.

At once public and private, street walking is an old tradion in New Orleans and this book introduces novice and old pro alike to the tricks of the trade.

Delehanty, director of the University of New Orleans' Ogden Museum of Southern Art and author of nine books, including the definitive coffee table book of New Orleans'interiors and patios, New Orleans: Elegance and Decadence, takes readers inside New Orleans buildings and gardens on over a dozen walking, transit, and (when necessary) car tours of the city and its River Road environs. Neighborhood by fauborg, he explains the special points of history that make this a city of towns, unlike most Southern cities. While your eyes are drawn to the architecture, he points out the lives of the inhabitants of these old homes, shops, and mansions - often writers and musicians. A few pages on "New Orleans House Design and Sociability: Stoops, Balconies, Galleries, and Porches" explain how climate, architecture, and sociability were intimately intertwined before the age of air-conditioning, cars, and television reduced urban life to a fraction of its potential for gracious living.

This walker's "ultimate guide" to New Orlean's architecture and culture is a must for locals who hope to become "New Orleans know it alls" and an inspired choice for those out of towners who hope to live like a native, if only for a few days.

Excellent and detailed maps, extensive cross-references, and select listings of all the basic tourist needs (restaurants, music clubs, bars, etc.) round out an excellent guide: the best of its kind (in the opinion of this City of New Orleans' licensed walking tour guide and life long resident of the Big Easy).

I was fortunate enough to buy this book just before my family's summer drive on 66. I'm definitely glad I did! This book made my family's drive along Route 66 in Arizona into a real adventure road trip.
I have read most of the national and state guides for the Mother Road, but this is definitely one of the very best. The Mangums have included all the alignments of the old Road, have them color coded and dated, and even include journeys for 4WD vehicles and bicycles on Route 66. I never would have found some of these alignments with the standard maps and guides.
One particular favorite was the old 1930s alignment between the Monte Carlo exit on I-40 (149) and the Welch exit (151) farther east. It was potholed and torn up, but I really felt like I was experiencing the real Route 66.
The book's recommendations for hotels, cafes, and attractions were extremely helpful. Also, unlike most Route 66 guides, this book describes the trip going in both directions!

The Mangums have another hit. This is exactly the sort of book Route 66 travellers have been waiting for. "Route 66 Across Arizona" is a very user friendly guide book that gives accurate, detailed directions to the existing sections of Route 66 across Arizona. I have tried several of their tours, and found them to be exactly as described. There are good maps, some history and local color, and perhaps best, recommended stops along the way. "Route 66 Across Arizona" beautifully updates Jack Rittenhouse's 1946 "Guide Book to Highway 66" and provides a practical foundation for many other books about Route 66.

Travelers will enjoy this fun and colorful book to Route 66 in Arizona. Authors Richard and Sherry Mangum have filled the pages with fascinating stories and helpful travel hints to help you rediscover the delights of slowly motoring down the "Mother Road." While wandering through the book, you'll find many detours, historic and modern photos, maps, museums, and little-known bits of history.

In Sacred Sites Of Wisconsin, John-Brian and Teresa Paprock effectively collaborate to profile over 400 places around the state of Wisconsin that are known for worship and pilgrimage, ranging from churches, temples, and synagogues to cemeteries, effigy mounds, and retreat centers. Each location has its history described, along with what makes it sacred and all the information a traveler will need to find and enjoy it, such as contact hours, location, and phone number. Sacred Sites Of Wisconsin contains nearly 80 photographs of its many destinations, and maps of each reason. A superb reference for anyone seeking to take a spiritual journey within Wisconsin, no Wisconsin community library state reference collection would be complete with the inclusion of John-Brian and Teresa Paprock's Sacred Sites Of Wisconsin.

Sacred Sites of Wisconsin will remind people of childhood trips to Holy Hill or the Dickeyville Grotto. What a great opportunity to think back on churches and other places that mean so much to us. And what a great opportunity to visit them again!

Sacred Sites of Wisconsin is a complete guide to buildings, places and natural areas that are or have been considered sacred in Wisconsin. Inclusive in its approach, it showcases the diversity of beliefs that are a part of Wisconsin heritage.

This guide will be of interest to spiritual seekers, historians, and those who might want to expand their knowledge of their own faith and its heritage in the state.

Best of all, Sacred Sites is a guidebook, meant to be kept in the car for quick reference. It includes contact information, hours and directions for the sites.

Sacred Sites would also make a great holiday gift for those with an interest in the sacred.

Notes from the road by author Jan Godown: Since age 13 I have criss-crossed Florida with my family, who never saw a rural route they didn't want to explore. Today I bring my own family to the places where Rawlings and Audubon fished and hunted, and where Muir camped on his 1,000 mile trek to the sea. This guide is informed by my background as a past director of the Florida Folklore Society and Florida Historical Society. It is for shunpikers. It takes you to places where you can renew your spirit. Visit along these routes, write in your journal about a Florida worth protecting, and go forth to teach about it.

This book offers all that you need to have a memorable vacation in Florida. There is no chance of getting lost and losing precious time as you drive through the Sunshine State. When I get my drivers license back, I will be able to use this book to the fullest

There are so many instant books about Florida churned out by writers who have merely zipped through the state en route to their next publication date that it is a pleasure to read one by someone actually familiar with the area. Jan Godown is a veteran Tallahassee journalist who has traveled these roads many times, and the reader--whether Floridian or tourist--is the beneficiary. She knows the charms, the history, and the things that threaten these places--not just how many miles they are from the plastic worlds of Central Florida. This book is a keeper on my library shelf--when it's not traveling in the front seat of my car!

I used this book frequently during our RV travels. This is a great book to use as a base to explore America. The book is very informative and interesting. We were not disappointed in the descriptions of the places we visited. This book is my most valuable book among my RV books for travel. A must have in any RV.

It is an indispensible book for the road traveler. Provides loop tours, so you can see new sites both outward and home bound. Has easy directions, good descriptions, and appropriate photographs.

I am a tourist in your nice country and I was never disapointed by this book- the best evidence about that in USA the wild west lives for ever.

A Sweet Quartet is a charming tale about the history of sugar, almonds, butter, and eggs, and how each made its way independently into the kitchen and became the foundation of all desserts. She tells the story of each ingredient by weaving history with personal recollections in the field at a sugar mill, at a hatchery, as owner of a patisserie, and other experiences. The story is compelling, and comes complete with 33 recipes. -rkc

Four basic elements make desserts possible: sugar, almonds, eggs, and butter. A Sweet Quartet blends a culinary history of these ingredients with a recipe guide and travelogue. No color photos, but the easy recipes don't need them, while the culinary history of dessert-making is fascinating, adding a literary touch to the results.

Fran Gage's "A Sweet Quartet" is filled to overflowing with gorgeous writing about four basic baking ingredients: sugar, almonds, eggs, and butter. She refers to these with the charming assertion that they are "the DNA of desserts." Although I'd disagree with her here (in my book, flour would replace almonds, much as I love almonds!), this former bakery owner makes her case so winningly and with such conviction that you are swept along in her cause.

The recipes are few--just under three dozen total--which may seem like very little for a cookbook that costs over twenty bucks. But Gage isn't trying to provide you with recipes as much as she's trying to fill you in on the background, the history, the chemical properties, and the world view of these ingredients. On the task she sets for herself, she does beautifully. Did you know, for instance, that:

"The Germans have loved marzipan since it arrived in the sixteenth century from Venice. They sought out the best almonds for it, and trade guilds regulated its sale; only apothecaries were allowed to sell it, much to the chagrin of confectioners . . . Neideregger, a marzipan maker in Lübeck since 1805, still boasts two hundred varieties."

or . . .

"The rhythmic slapping of balloon whisks beating egg whites in copper bowls is more than a romantic holdover. Atoms from the copper bind with one of the white's proteins, which promotes cross-linking between the protein molecules, resulting in a foam that is creamier and not so easy to overwhip."

or . . .

"There is real butter, and there is fake butter, and they are not the same . . . Spurred on by a challenge from Napoleon III in 1869, Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès came up with a cheaper substitute. Relying on shaky biological knowledge of how a cow produced something that became butter, he mixed the oil from beef fat (oleo) with skimmer milk and water, throwing in a strip of cow udder for good measure. His invention was surprisingly like the veritable item. He called it margarine, after the Greek word for 'pearl,' a name that reflected its glossy appearance. People liked the price, and some may have liked the taste. The new product became popular."

"A Sweet Quartet" is filled with fascinating nuggets like this, studded with information that way one of Gage's desserts might be studded with dried cranberries or chocolate chunks or, well, almonds. This is a super book for anyone interested in peeking behind the bakery curtain to see the whys and wherefores of the way these essential dessert ingredients work and how they affect both each other and other ingredients. And the recipes, by the way, are wonderful!

Texas Food Companies: A Tasty Guide by Texas author Rhonda Cloos is a unique and impressive, encyclopedia-style reference to over one hundred food companies located within the confines of the Lone Star State. Each entry contains a brief history of the company, information on food factory tours, and buying and ordering information in order to get hold of company foodstuffs. A web guide to ordering favorite foods online make the mouth-watering ingredients listed in Texas Food Companies effectively available to all. Whether as a specialized travel guide reference for visitors or for gourmet cooks seeking direct order ingredients for Texas ethnic cuisines, Texas Food Companies is a welcome and highly recommended reference.

This is a cover to cover must-read for any "foodie", from the serious food historian to chefs, to serious or amateur home cooks, Texans, Texas travellers, and on and on...
The author captures the essence of culinary company history, proving that the Texas heart is as big as its lore. From chocolate to bar-b-q, settle in for a mouth-watering ride across the Lone Star State. You'll be wanting to fill your chuckwagon along the way!

This is one of the finest books(non fiction ) that I have ever read. The mouth-watering contents are truly revealing and the writing is concise and very informative. Rhonda Cloos has the gift of making one almost taste the scrumptious contents of thisbook. I recommend this Texas Food Company guide to anyone who appreciates the culinary arts. Reviewer: Bob Cohen Evanston,Il.

I received this book as a promotional gift from a publisher two days ago. I'd planned to read it "some time during the winter"... in other words, putting it off. Then I just kind of thumbed through it... and lo and behold, I couldn't lay it down. I read it twice since it came in the mail a couple of days back. It's a GREAT book, I can totally recommend it.

I read this book several months ago, before it was available here. I must say, questions that I've had all of my life... about God, about the Universe, why we're here, etc. etc. ... were all answered within a few hours in the reading of this book. This book has turned my life around! Definitely recommended.

This is an amazing work of art and teaching. The author writes in a fascinating and interesting style, easy to understand, yet exciting enough that you can't put it down. She talks about every possible question someone might have in regards to metaphysics and interjects her own experiences in an entertaining fashion. Definitely a MUST to read and have.

Frank and Victoria Logue are prolific writers. Their work covers hiking, camping and outdoor adventures in Georgia so this book is a natural extension of that work.

Touring the Backroads covers the entire state (don't be misled by the title). The tours are Northwest Georgia Drive, Native American Tour, North Georgia Mountain Tour, Northeast Georgia Tour, Fort Yargo to Tucker's Ferry, Classic South, Plantation, Middle Georgia Ramble, Georgia Capitals Drive, East Georgia Ramble, Southwest Georgia Ramble, Middle Georgia Farmland, Altamaha River Loop, Wire Grass, and South Georgia.

Our favorites: Georgia Capitals, Georgia Mountains (covers the Georgia Gold Rush), Northwest Georgia (takes you from the Tennessee State line to Rome), and the Southwest Georgia Ramble (highlights the Kolomaki Mounds and Providence Canyon, two underused state parks). The Native American Tour covers the Etowah Indian Mounds, the first capital of the Cherokee Nation at New Echota (now a Georgia State Park) and a wall built by Indians that pre-dated the Moundbuilders.

One of the things I like about this book is that Frank and Victoria don't assume you know esoteric facts about Georgia's history. They take you through the whole story, telling what you need to know to appreciate the stop.

I am a librarian reviewing this book for our school library which we purchased. Like the backroads, at first glance one might think there's nothing much there. Eventhough the photos are small and not color, this book makes up for it with surprisingly rich content. I gave it 5 stars for the content alone. The history and facts about this my home region were quite impressive. I only wanted the tour to slow down and concentrate more on some of the individual topics, but alas when you're on tour you only get a few moments before moving on. I've learned some things I did not know. The style of writing is intelligent and very readable. The research level is substantial in order to have uncovered these facts, that as a resident here in the backroads I know were not easy to come by. If you take a tour of any of these areas, take this book along because you won't find this information readily available aside from long hours of historical research. Facts about the history of growing peaches in Georgia along with recipes for peach cobbler and pecan pie are especially nice. Printed on alkaline paper, I only wish it was hardback.

I bought this book for the driving tours and I loved the one drive I have taken so far. But, I really enjoy the delightful stories that fill this book. It has the most amazing array of colorful anecdotes from Georgia history. It is a wonderful armchair book and an even better driving guide. I'm looking forward to doing more of the drives.

This book is very insightful on both, aspects of tourism and travel, as well as the financial affects that tourism can play on a country's economy. The authors seem to know what they're talking about and they're very good at relaying their knowledge to their readers in a concise way.

This text provides a great overview of the tourism industry, from what tourism is to its organization to the theories that help fomulate such a diverse industry. This book should be studied by every student studying tourism.

This book offers a fusion of theory and practical advice that is directly relevant to managers - an area where many current tourism texts fall short. It is both strategic and tactical, providing readers with a broad overview of the tourism environment as well as implementable ideas for improving business performance. I have read and enjoyed the original version by McIntosh, and the new insights from Ritchie and Goeldner add new depth to an already exceptional read.

Look around. You'll find no book in the field as thorough and well written as this.