This is a great book for the traveller who doesn't have much time to spend in a country and just wants to see the "highlights" of each city. The author does a fantastic job of setting out a realistic itinerary for each city. We followed the itineraries for Hong Kong, Kyoto, and Chiang Mai with much success. The book is very basic and concentrates on "must-see" places and things (there is a rating system to help you narrow down your choices if you are really time pressed). It's a great guide for the time pressed do-it-yourself traveller. Combine this book with a Lonely Planet guide for your particular country and you've got it made.

First, the 1994 edition is an updated version of the book I used in 1989 and I don't see how it could possibly be any better. From L.A. to Santa Barbara to San Simeon to Carmel--every facet of what he recommended bordered on excellence. The restuarants and out of the way places were supreme and affordable. Frankly, I can't think of a better way to travel on a budget!. We also followed his book x amount of days across Germany and it was equally special.

As an alumnus of Hillsdale College and someone who knows practically every person quoted in this book, I was disappointed. The author fails to look beneath the surface of the tragedy at Hillsdale and takes the easy route of casting aspersions on former Hillsdale President George Roche III and his son, Lissa's husband, George Roche IV. While these two were certainly not perfect, the author fails to understand that much of the turmoil within the college and the faculty was going on well before the events chronicled in the book. Unfortunately, the author relies on information and interviews from questionable sources and current faculty members who are obviously attempting to protect their reputations as well as that of the college -- for example his usage of information from the Hillsdale Liberation Organization is questionable being that the "HLO" is actually a group of dissatisfied former students from the college. The death of Lissa Roche may deserve further examination, but it needs to be done by someone who understands the politics and powerplays as they happened at Hillsdale College over the past 15-20 years, not just the past 2 or 3. The author fails to provide a compelling case for his claim that Lissa was murdered and he also fails to explain the situation at Hillsdale that apparently led her to take her own life.

This book provides a very nice review of Hillsdale College's dedication to further education without government intervention. It also reviews the recent tragic death of Lissa Roche. While the latter issue is interesting, I found the historical review of the college's committment to independence most uplifting. Decades before Affirmative Action was put into place, Hillsdale College denied government assistance so that minorities and women could attend its school - helping them fulfill their dreams.

Based upon the author's premise that "there is not one single shred of evidence that (she) actually committed suicide," Roger Rapoport's "Hillsdale: Greek Tragedy in America's Heartland" seeks to open up what certainly has to be one of the more controversial police investigations (and findings) in recent memory.

Lissa Jackson Roches, dauthter-in-law of the college president and noted editor in collegiate academic circles, is found dead in the Slayton Arboretum of Hillsdale College, itself a noted--and respected--liberal arts college . When the facts are laid out by the author, of course, this book, indeed, resembles something right out of Aeschylus or Euripides--or for perhaps many of the modern audience--a soap opera.

Alas, however, this death and "investigation"is not fiction and Rapoport is determined that, as in "Hamlet," "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark." In this case, it's a peaceful college town in Michigan, complete with its own set of codes, secrets, innuendo, and tragedy.

Rapoport's examination of the case is done with an eye to the critical, taking the official police and court findings and, looking askance at what he finds, begins his own investigation, as it were. His line of thought, his own questions, indeed, do raise more than "a reasonable doubt." He also presents the other individuals involved--her family members, acquaintances, and friends, making the "Orestia" seem somewhat tame! So many questions, so little time--and, to make further the analogy to a soap opera, so few advertisers to pay for opening up this melodrama!

Rapoport, who presents himself as a disinterested party, certainly raises enough questions that, to me--or any other third party--should warrant a re-investigation, this time as a homocide. His thorough backgrounding of the scenario and its players is also impressive. Rapoport, already an established author and literary investigator, present his book in a style that is quite readable without being melodramatic.

It will be interesting to see what impact it has on the Michigan authorities. Not to re-open this case should, indeed, raise even more questions into the infrastructure of this death. Good luck, Mr. Rapoport! (Billyjhobbs@tyler.net)

This book is a third sequel to a book of established writers' travel horror stories. Here, amateur writers share their travel woes. It is, clearly, an attempt to milk a cash cow. While the writing is adequate (certainly not great), it's the content of the stories that really makes this a useless anthology. They're the quality of story you might tell your friends at dinner, but are in no way deserving of publication. Examples include: I was on a plane that was delayed; I couldn't find my car after the Super Bowl; we rented a boat and wrecked it; the service at this restaurant in England was very slow; we went to a hotel and damned if it wasn't a fairly shabby hotel; we ate some food and got sick. There are a few stories as interesting as, say, getting hurt and experiencing Vietnam's standard of hospital care. But mostly this is very dull, and pretty close to worthless.

The principal attraction of I REALLY SHOULD HAVE STAYED HOME is that its collected tales of road woe happen in non-exotic places to Ordinary Joes. I've been entertained in the past by compilations of such stories, some of which might perhaps stretch the credulity of those whose idea of a journey is flying to Phoenix to visit the mother-in-law or, at best, spending a couple of weeks on a package cruise of the Med. You know the kind of stories I mean: road warrior loses laptop to headhunters in the Amazon outback, spelunker falls into pit of bat guano in a remote Siberian cave. I mean, whom do you know does this stuff?

In this book, whether it's being seated on an international flight in front of someone secretly carrying an eye-wateringly stinky package - durian, in this case - or stupidly parking the car on the tram tracks in Brussels and bringing city traffic to a complete halt, I can relate without too much a stretch of the imagination. Then there's the story by the man whose experiences in a provincial Vietnamese hospital having sea urchin spines removed from his foot remind one of medieval torture. Or the one about having to chaperone "Ugly Californian" relatives through the backwaters of Central Europe. The first chapter relating a couple's encounters with various creepy-crawlers, including a scorpion found in a hanging shirt, during a trip to Costa Rica is particularly relevant to me because my wife wants to visit the country. (Oh, sweetie, come and read this!)

I won't pretend that all of these 43 stories are terrific. The monodrone - not a proper word, but it ought to be - by the college professor congratulating himself on having resisted the persistent sexual advances of a female student enrolled at the American University of Bulgaria was a piece of self-serving claptrap. And the one by the adventurer who decides to dribble a soccer ball across 15 miles of Colorado wilderness was simply contrived and silly. And a few more were just so-so. However, after finishing each chapter, I looked forward to the next with expectant curiosity and was rarely disappointed...

From the paperback edition's cover you would expect this to be an amusing look at other people's travel horrors. The stories are OK, but I have seen better collections of such. The book is leavened by a rather outdated set of observations on the state of the book industry. I'm surprised that a 1998 book gives almost no attention to internet book retailing.