First saw this magnificent volume at a collector's home, and had to acquire a copy for my library as inspiration for my own artistic endeavors with majolica.

People all over the world treat this as the "Bible" of Victorian Majolica. It is the best.

I have never traveled to Finland, but after reading this book, one will feel like they have journeyed there many times! The author beautifully portrays the simple yet elegant Finnish living designs and also brings the reader though the seasons in order to experience a more up close and personal Finland. The pictures are beautiful, bright, and do help the reader to have more of a "feel" of the land and people of Finland.

"The house is like its master", states a Finnish Proverb, which greets the reader at the beginning of the book. Gaynor depicts Finland to the reader in both black and white and incredibly vivid color. Her narratives throughout the book are wonderful and one will feel that they are totally immersed into the experience of touring the countryside with the author! The richness of the people, portrayed through their simplistic lifestyle, is very much evident.

The reader is also bought into the design of the exterior of the buildings and I loved the pictures of all the different doorways! The taste of the architectural adventure and history is a treat! Sources are also listed at the back of the book if one wishes to purchase Finnish furniture or accessories.

I heartily recommend this book, whether one is contemplating a trip to this Nordic country, or whether one has a fascination for the culture and experience of Finland. This book will easily feed your fascination as you cannot help but devour chapter after chapter! The photographer, Kari Haavisto, is also to be commended for the beauty of the land as seen through her eyes. The reader will definitely walk away with a more revered perspective for the people, their land, and their lifestyle.

I came across McFadden's "A Trip Around Lake Erie" about eight years ago, when a clerk at Schwartz Booksellers in Milwaukee recommended it. In the days before amazon.com, I spent a couple years collecting the trilogy, which took me to bookstores in Minnesota and McFadden's hometown of Hamilton, Ontario, which really is as dirty, dreary and burnt-out as McFadden describes it.

McFadden mixes fiction and non-fiction together as he tells the story of his family's road trip in a Volkswagen camper around Lake Erie. He later wrote about their travel adventures as they toured the Lake Huron area. He had planned to write about trips around each of the Great Lakes, but then his kids grew up and he got a divorce. Ten years after he went around Erie and Huron, he finally tackled Lake Ontario alone, except for a three-man film crew that followed behind him and tried to stay out of his tale.

The reader is never sure whether McFadden is telling the truth or making it up. It doesn't detract from the story. Actually, it's a hoot when you come across the surreal parts of his tales. At one point in "A Trip Around Lake Erie," dead fish somehow migrate from the beach at Point Pelee to every room in the McFadden's Hamilton, Ontario home.

Each short chapter (many lasting less than one page) is a sly little poem. A movie scriptwriter had told McFadden that to make these books more saleable, he should have someone chasing him. McFadden doesn't need such Hollywood conventions. His stories of the road and his many digressions (including bicycling kinesiologists and a brown dachsund named Schenley, because his owners like the whisky)are a fanciful read in themselves.

I hope McFadden eventually makes it around Superior and Lake Michigan. Even if he doesn't, there's enough humor and magic in this fine trilogy to keep you smiling for years.

I also recommend a fourth McFadden road trip, "A Typical Canadian Family Visits Disney World," which is a hilarious long poem that is not included here, along with his other novels, poems and essays.

I became much more engaged with this book when Davy reached the Highlands.Prior to that, I was finding his repetition of B&B conversations a little tedious.In the Highlands and Mull , Davy seemed more enthusiastic about what he was seeing (and it helped that we share an interest and wonderment in prehistoric sites!)
Davy highlighted the issue of negative attitudes towards "incomers" in the Highlands,something which most visitors would be unaware of.Good for you Davy, these things need to be aired .
On the whole , I suspect that Davy's view of the Scots may be rather skewed , given that he only seemed to meet people in B&Bs and late night in pubs, thus missing out on whole sections of this fascinating, charming and intelligent population!
By the way,Davy,in case you're reading this : visit Arbroath next time and try the local delicacy -Arbroath SMOKIES.Delicious smoked haddock.I doubt that anyone in Arbroath has heard of Arbroath stovies , unless they,ve read your book !
Overall, an enjoyable ,quirky and gently humorous book.For Scots, it gives us the chance "To see oursels as ithers see us "

David McFaddden would be an interesting fellow to with whom to travel. Whether making circle tours of the Great Lakes or searching for Pictish earthworks in Scotland, his poet's eye, wonderful listening skills and knack for encountering strange persons and situations makes just reading about his travels an experience. I laughed aloud, I shook my head in confusion and/or disgust, and I looked at a map and did research. What I would really like is to buy him dinner at Harbor Haus on the Lake Superior shore in Copper Harbor to ask why he thinks "Scots Wha' Hae' is a sad song and when he's going to write the Lake Superior book.

I found this gem of a book while visiting McFadden's homeland of Canada. Being someone who has an enormous interest in Scottish heritage, the title caught my interest. I read the first four chapters while standing in the bookstore while other customers looked in my direction for laughing out loud. McFaddens view on the land of the Scots had me smiling through the entire book. And his attitude is genuine (we became email friends). The people he came in contact with were to the average person a bit out of the ordinary. He brought out the wanderlust in me enough to want to experience the same route that both he and H.V. Morton took. His descriptions were so top notch, it brings you right in the very circle of friends he meets. I recommend this book to anyone who loves the quirkiness and fun that should always be a part of our travels.

I read a review of the book in a industry magazine and it described it as useful for a professional financial advisor, as the title also implies. It turned out to be a pretty basic educational book with general but basic financial information. A good book for a beginner or someone who is just beginning to break into the financial services industry, but not necessarily for a seasoned professional.

After enjoying Pete McCarthy and Tony Hanks' tales of travelling 'round Ireland, I was very disappointed with McFadden's attempt at the same. He is too self-absorbed and never really sees anything other than cliche. Don't waste your time!

This should have been called An "Innocent" Slogging Around Ireland. The author explains early on his notion of innocent, but I would hardly call a middle-aged man who picks up a young chambermaid an innocent. (Also, is this guy middle-aged, as the cover photo would indicate, or he is considerably older? He looks about 70 in the flap photo.) Moralizing aside, the author seems only vaguely interested in his plan to follow H.V. Morton's route, and he tends to skip from one subject to another in the space of a single paragraph. Though he makes attempts to explain the look of a thing, person or place, his prose isn't very visual. I also agree with another reviewer that there should have been photographs included. I am very glad I didn't buy the volume on Scotland, which I had been tempted to do. Read Tony Hawks or Pete McCarthy instead.

I purchased this book and McFadden's follow-up on Scotland (which I haven't yet read) based on the local newspaper's Travel section recommendation of the Scottish title. If the book on Scotland is much like the one on Ireland I'm not looking forward to reading it. McFadden spends too much of his narrative observing himself and his unexpected travelling companion, the impulsive Spanish chambermaid/photographer/poet Lourdes Brasil, then he does the people and landscapes of Ireland. I grew tired of his self-congratulatory asides that Lourdes was gaining admiring glances from the Irish. I wanted to know more, to SEE more about the land he was travelling through and the people he was encountering. And instead of making countless references to the photographs both he and Lourdes were taking, he should've included some of the photos in the book. Overall, I wanted more descriptions, to gain more of a sense of being there in Ireland. Instead I was left with the feeling that I had eavesdropped on the unexpected frolic of a middle-aged man and a young Spanish chambermaid who just happened to meet in Ireland and drive around the countryside for a bit. For a better sense of place, skip McFadden's book and try any of the series of travelling and life in Ireland by Niall Williams and Christine Breen.