Partners In The Wilderness: Travis's Choice by Ed Kienzle is the engaging story of Travis Driskoll, a twelve-year-old Wyoming boy whose adventurous hunting trip turns into a nightmare when his father is attacked by a bear. Befriending the spirit of a legendary explorer, Travis learns independence and survival skills as he undertakes the perilous quest to save his injured father's life. An engrossing adventure from cover to cover, Partners In The Wilderness: Travis's Choice is highly recommended for young readers ages 12 through 18.

This book is an easy-reading guide covering all states. Don't leave home without this one! Lots of history of the parks. My only disappointment was the small number of photographs.

This book is just awesome...it reviews over 350 theme parks, amusement parks, and waterparks all over the U.S. and Canada, providing everything you'd want to know about every park...the great roller coasters and other thrill rides, costs, operation schedule, directions, special tips, insider facts and trivia, historical milestones, etc. Also gives phone numbers and website addresses for each park. The author is a life-long park expert and senior editor of a major park industry publication...he really seems to know his stuff, and he injects some fun and personality into the book. It's a great guide to use to plan your park trips and to carry with you for quick reference. It's also fun to to sit down and read through it because it gives so much interesting trivia on the parks. Just a fantastic, authoratative, fun, easy-to-use resource on parks.

This is a great book!! It is well worth your money. If you are planning a vaction, then buy this book. It has theme parks from Disney to Universal Orlando, to Cedar Point, all of the Paramount Parks and many, many more!! The ultimate guide to rollercoasters is this book!!

Although it does not include every site administered by the NPS, this book is very thorough in its treatment of the 50 parks it covers. The author also describes 13 suggested driving trips of five to 12 days each, incorporating nearby attractions. Includes detailed information on accommodations/campgrounds, activities available in each park, handy tips and tidbits, maps and photos. A great travel reference book!

"... describes 53 national parks and monuments in depth... giving advice on how to plan your time - vital when it comes to setting schedule priorities. Ludmer's tips are invaluable." Physician's Travel & Meeting Guide,

Touring America's national parks has become a passtime for me. I've been from Acadia to the North Cascades to the Grand Canyon and this book is an excellent reference. With an emphasis on travelling via automobile, it also has several suggested hiking trips in each park as well as other points of interest. They say that most people never get more than 100 feet from their cars in parks. Well, this is the book to help get you there, and point out the best routes outside of your car. It covers more territory than anyone could possibly see in a lifetime...but it's sure fun to try.

This very engrossing book is both an interesting detective story and an interesting insight into Soviet life in Moscow at a certain time in the near past. By setting what would otherwise be a traditional murder mystery (with some traditionally current grotesque elements) in Moscow, Martin Cruz Smith is able to introduce a host of fresh elements into a tired genre. The Russian hero has a whole different set of personal and professional concerns than would his New York counterpart, and the characters and situations encountered are likewise different, strange and interesting because new to this type of fiction. Finally, the basic plot - the nature of the murder and the crime's solving - are totally dependent on the Moscow setting.

Great stuff. A real original and highly recommended for anyone wanting something different from the same old stuff.

Arkydy Renko, an honest hard working, conscientious, public investigator, fights his way through a maze of evil and hostile characters, the cunning, ruthless American entrepreneur, Osborne, his own corrupt boss, Yamskoi and major Preblida, the KGB man. He is after the ruthless killer of three young people, found in frozen Gorky Park, shot at point- blank- range, their faces and fingertips obliterated.. He is helped along the way by the brother of one of the slain men, a young American idealist. Curwell, a New York detective, fluent in Russian, joins hands reluctantly with Arkydy to revenge his brother's murder.

Arkydy, by brilliant reasoning and with help from his love, Arina Ossinova, entangles the Sable fur trade, the labyrinth of KGB, and bureaucracy of FBI, tracks down the killer all the way to New York City. Here detective Curwell teams up with him to go after Osborne. But Osborne knows the score and book ends with an unforgettable scene where Arkydy fulfilling his task, limps back to Moscow. He tells Arina, his accomplice and love,who sells her very soul to come to America, to go disappear in America, where she belongs.

The book sheds light on dark, Byzantine, bad old days of Soviet Union where every body spied on every body and KGB ruled supreme. I guess people
like Arkydy, the optimistic, very human chief investigator, turned the Soviet régime around and created another revolution seventy years after the brutal first, paving the way for democracy.

i never read modern novels, much less thrillers, yet arkady renko is an absolute favourite of mine, very humane breed (extremely hard to find nowadays). the book is very intelligent and even darkly funny. as for the reviewer who speaks about the joy and prosperity of his own society as compared to the evil empire, i think he should 1)grow up 2)recall osborn is an american and 3)walk (not drive) to the next housing project with a couple of illegal workers from central america, and ask them about their rights to joy and prosperity. of course, now you can see i am an idealistic misanthrope (that's why i love renko), but don't let that keep you from reading the book.

Fodor's has put together a solid collection of facts and information for visiting the National Parks in the West, but the avid hiker and outdoorsperson would do well to add other pieces of literature to their collection before setting out. This book provides essential information such as phone numbers, addresses, and directions to the parks. It details options for camping in and out of the parks, as well as lodging in cities. However, I found a number of the prices they listed to be out of date, and some of the phone numbers were inaccurate. These were minor inconveniences, however, and did not overshadow the overall effectiveness of the guide.

As far as activities, the book offers some brief guidelines for hikes and drives around the parks. I found these descriptions to be very impersonal and vague. For example, it lists trails as being "moderately difficult" without explaining what types of difficulties one might encounter. For a hiker, there is a big difference between a steep climb and precipitous footing, but this book does little to detail what one might expect on a given trail. I found the "America's National Parks for Dummies" guide to be much more informative as far as specific trail conditions and wildlife concerns (e.g. grizzly and black bear areas, mountain lions, etc.) Fodor's guide does not address these issues, which are also of utmost concern for most backcountry hikers. Additionally, the editors seem to abide by a policy of "Just the Facts" - they offer little to nothing in the way of ratings or opinions regarding which campsites and facilities may be better maintained within the parks. Most avid campers I know value a firsthand opinion when trying to decide where to pitch their tents - and reading that a campsite is quiet and primarily tents, versus noisy and popular with RVs is extremely helpful information to have in hand.

We used both the Fodor's and Dummies guides on a six-week cross-country trip and found them to be nice complements to one another. The Dummies guide covers fewer parks but in greater detail, and offers candid opinions; the Fodor's guide gives you all the essentials you need for planning a visit to the park. If you don't plan on doing much hiking, this book could be all you need, but I recommend supplementing it with a more descriptive guide.

I am beginning my research for a vacation to the South West. This is a good starting place. It touches on most of the parks with pretty decent descriptions and pictures. You can't go wrong with this book.

The amazon.com review and book description are absolutely correct. This book contains the perfect amount of information for visiting the parks--we used it to visit 18 national parks in the sumer of '99, and found the itineraries and best-ofs to be wonderful. Research was solid and presented in extremely easy to read format. Look no further for a national park guide!

The book has minimal diving-related discussions. It is more of a generalized guidebook to the Keys. If you're looking for diving-specific info, go elsewhere. As a guidebook, it does an okay job. Not a bad book, especially considering the price.

"[Adventure Guides] direct you away from the theme parks and into the great outdoors... the information on trekking routes, canoeing, wildlife refuges - even golf courses - is well researched." The Sunday Telegraph

"This book makes it easy to discover the whole [Everglades], even the secret places like Corkscrew Swamp." National Audubon Society

The National Parks of the Eastern U.S. are lovely and important historic areas, and deserve attention by all travellers to these regions. The Guide to the National Park Areas provides a short overview of each of these areas, including the lesser-known parks in each of the states. For travellers who simply want to know what is available, and what is there, this is a fine resource. However, the book does little more than list the places and tell you a bit about them. Significantly more research would be necessary in order to plan a trip to any of these places or to get much out of a visit.

We found the fifth edition of this guide to be very helpful during a recent East Coast visit. The thing that impressed me most was the inclusion of smaller park areas we would ordinarily skip or miss simply because we didn't know about them. In fact, we found many of the smaller park areas (Fort Caroline in Jacksonville, FL) to be very interesting. We highly recommend this guide if you are thinking about taking in the east. We also found the western edition very helplful during our summer trip.

It goes without saying that the national parks east of the Mississippi River are both scenic and chronicled with historical lore. David and Kay Scott, experienced campers and authors of The Guide to the National Park Areas: Eastern States, corroborate those claims, substantially and naturally! Accompanying the detailed maps and essential travel information are concise statements about facilities, camping, and fishing for the eastern national park sites. This revision is even more serviceable than the earlier releases! The book is truly outstanding--illustrating the gift of America to its populace!

This book made our vacation to St. Augustine great. Our boxers had a great time, especially at the beach! Thanks Sally, Robert and Maggie!

This book is right on the money. We stayed in the Clearwater Beach area while vacationing in Florida, and used this book to find a place to stay at Clearwater Beach that is dog friendly. Also, the book listed dog beaches and dog friendly cafes. The dog beaches were so much fun for both us and the dog. The book also gave some great tips about taking dogs in Florida, like alligators and salt water, which us Northerners didn't really think about. A great book, would reccommend it to anyone traveling to Florida.

The best book for dog owners living or traveling in Florida. The reviews of places to visit, eat, and stay are accurate and straight foward. I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for something to do in Florida with their dog.

I found this to be a very helpful book for trip planning: when and where to go and getting an idea of what different kinds of safaris have to offer. A number of valuable charts regarding the best times to see certain wildlife, climate, etc. The book is a good way to narrow your choices before starting to collect brochures and get travel guides for individual countries. The coverage will not replace good field guides or travel guides---just get you ready for that stage. One caveat: I didn't care for Nolting's snobbishness about the best way to travel (I managed to see more than I might have on one of his "first class" safaris).

Now in its revised and expanded sixth edition, Africa's Top Wildlife Countries by Mark W. Nolting (who has spend more than twenty years personally exploring and researching the African continent) is a thorough and "user friendly" instructional guidebook to making the most of an African safari. Specific sections are devoted to each nation and cover top-rated or first-class accommodations, professional tours, and ecologically-friendly visits enabling the traveler to see and experience a wide variety of amazing and exotic wildlife. Enhanced with an extensively detailed planner offering the latest information on the best times to visit, what to pack, and which tours offer the most service, Africa's Top Wildlife Countries is enthusiastically recommended for anyone planning to embark on a "once-in-a-lifetime" safari adventure of their own.

If you are even thinking about embarking on an African safari, you must read this book! Not only did Mark's book convince me to go, I also used his travel agency to book my trip! This book gave me the best ideas of what countries and game parks would best suit my particular interests. It also provided many examples of different types of safari experiences: from "roughing it" to luxury. I chose to do a little of both. It was the BEST and most memorable event of my life. Mark has a way of making even the most timid traveler feel comfortable with such an adventurous trip before they even step on the plane. I even had two of my own photographs published in this edition of his book! I couldn't recommend this any more highly!

I agree with the reviewers who say this book is less than complete. Very sketchy descriptions. Fromer's guide is MUCH BETTER.

This guide was a present for our 40th anniversary. We found it very useful and highly recommend it to other travelers who wish to learn more about our national parks. We didn't even know about many of the parks that are included.

My wife and I found the Scott's guide to be an excellent reference during our first try at visiting the national parks. Especially worthwhile is the coverage of many small areas that are included. We highly recommend this book and the accompanying guide to the eastern park areas.