1. ISBN13: 9780767903868
2. Condition: NEW
3. Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Customer Review :

Bill Brysons Sunburnt Country

Bill Bryson gave an enlightening history and geography lesson on Australia. My family and I who were born in Australia have seen many of the locations Bill has spoken of. His sense of humor captures the real Australian attitude on life. His presentation on Australian history taught us things we didn't know and certainly were not taught in school. Despite the in depth description of the people, the attitudes, the dangers, the vastness, and the challenges written in his book, the audio version is even funnier and interesting with his feelings demonstrated with humor in his voice. Intoxicated or sober Bill was true to how Australia is and lives...well done.

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About a Sunburned Country by Bob G.

Mr Bryson has the unique ability to leave the reader with a desire to experience those places he has been to. His often humorous observations
make for an entertaining read. Sprinkled with history and some of the personalities that make up that history, he covers an amazing amount of
geography on this wonderful and somewhat remote continent. I don't believe anyone would be disappointed with this book and I feel that it is
among those that should be read before a trip to Oz.

Rating :

I HAVE TO SAY THAT I ENJOYED EVER WORD OF THIS ONE

There is one thing about Bill Bryson; you either like him or you don't. Just reading the reviews here on Amazon and several other sites prove that. It is not just this work in question though; it is all of his work. I note that drifting from site to site that he, Bryson, has a small cadre of "haters," and all of their reviews sound sort of the same. And this is book after book....same reviewers, different books. You would think that after a few reads, and that if you found you did not like a particular author, then you would simply ignore his work. Not so with this author...go figure. This small group seems to hound his every work. Anyway, I personally like his books. I grant you I like some better than others, but that is only natural to my way of thinking. This work being reviewed here is one of his books that I particularly enjoyed.

To begin with we need to look at what this book is not. First, it is not an anthropological study of the Aborigine tribes of Australia. Yes, he does address them and their historical and tragic plight, but this is hardly the purpose of the book and no, he does not interview any of them. Secondly, this is not an all encompassing travel guide to all of the thousands of places to visit in this wonderful country. That would be an impossible task in a volume of this size. Thirdly, this is not a rough and tumble survivor type of trip (or series of trips, as the case is here) made by an intrepid survival type guy roughing it in the Outback...hey folks, this is Bryson. A cold beer, swimming pool and a good meal are relished by this guy.

What this work is, is a rather amusing and at times downright funny account of the author's trip, or to be precise, "trips" through various parts of the largest island country in the world. His travels, tribulations, adventures and encounters with various individuals are told in his normal understated and humorous style. I think one of the strong points of Bryson's writing is the ability to make fun of himself and to recognize his own short comings as a traveler, and indeed, a human being.

Unlike his work `A Walk in the Woods,' the author has kept his caustic remarks about the people he encounters to a minimum and only dealt out his understated sarcasms when they were richly deserved. The author has the ability to articulate, in a very funny and amusing way, what many of us are actually thinking when we encounter rude hotel staff member, encounter bad meals and or are bored to distraction with a place or area.

The author has filled his work with wonderful bits of trivial and not so trivial history, pieces of information we normally would not be exposed to without a great amount of research, and I must say I picked up a wealth of knowledge of geography, plants, animals, history, fish, snakes, insects, plants, minerals and people through reading this work. Yes, I know that some find his including these bits and pieces of his research into his work annoying and less than honest, but for me this is one of his strengths in presenting a very readable and interesting subject. Of all his works, this one included, I have yet to find an inaccuracy in his reporting, and I can assure you that I have made plenty of spot checks.

For a light read that is bound to entertain you, unless you are in the "I hate Bryson" camp, I cannot think of a better way to spend several evenings. On the other hand, if you have found a number of his books to not be up to your standards, then I suggest you skip this one. I personally eagerly await each and every book the man works on.

Don Blankenship
The Ozarks


Rating :

Fantastic - that's all I'm saying...

A fun re-read from one of my favorite authors, Bill Bryson. Any book that Bryson pens is sure to lead to uncontrollable laughter, snorts, chortles or gaffaws, so plan your reading time accordingly. Not recommended reading material for mime class, funerals, or anywhere quiet, confined and where you will be surrounded by strangers - trust me on this. Even your own family members (*ehem* teenage daughters) might have a tendency to think you finally, irrevocably lost it and look warily at you as if you have become possessed by demons or body odor.

But I digress. Anyway, Bryson makes the land Down Under come alive to armchair travellers everywhere, and if you're not aching to call your travel agent by the time you finish this book, then I don't think you have an adventurous bone in your body.

Australia is a big country, filled with stranger and larger then life flora and fauna then one can possibly imagine. In Bryson's deft and sarcastic way, he manages to poke fun of and fulsomely praise this place at the same time. This is a land where prime ministers go missing forever and no one else in the world knows it, where deadly critters line up on land and in the sea awaiting the unsuspecting human to stumble upon them, where some Australian cities are often closer to other countries then they are to each other and where you can travel 1,500 miles along a rugged, scenic coast highway and pass only 2 other cars...

Bryson brings this land, its history, its people and its magnificence to vivid life. You'll laugh, you'll gape in wonder, and you'll sigh that you either weren't born there or don't have the money to get there to see for yourself. Count me as both!


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Great before Studying Abroad

I spent last semester studying in Australia. This book gave me a great overview of where I wanted and didn't want to visit in Australia without having to read through a dry tour book.

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1. ISBN13: 9781400042449
2. Condition: NEW
3. Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Editorial Review :

From the Pulitzer Prize finalist and National Book Critics Circle Award–winning author of Newjack, an absorbing book about roads and their power to change the world.

Roads bind our world—metaphorically and literally—transforming landscapes and the lives of the people who inhabit them. Roads have unparalleled power to impact communities, unite worlds and sunder them, and reveal the hopes and fears of those who travel them.

With his marvelous eye for detail and his contagious enthusiasm, Ted Conover explores six of these key byways worldwide. In Peru, he traces the journey of a load of rare mahogany over the Andes to its origin, an untracked part of the Amazon basin soon to be traversed by a new east-west route across South America. In East Africa, he visits truckers whose travels have been linked to the worldwide spread of AIDS. In the West Bank, he monitors highway checkpoints with Israeli soldiers and then passes through them with Palestinians, witnessing the injustices and danger borne by both sides. He shuffles down a frozen riverbed with teenagers escaping their Himalayan valley to see how a new road will affect the now-isolated Indian region of Ladakh. From the passenger seat of a new Hyundai piling up the miles, he describes the exuberant upsurge in car culture as highways proliferate across China. And from inside an ambulance, he offers an apocalyptic but precise vision of Lagos, Nigeria, where congestion and chaos on freeways signal the rise of the global megacity.

A spirited, urgent book that reveals the costs and benefits of being connected—how, from ancient Rome to the present, roads have played a crucial role in human life, advancing civilization even as they set it back.

Customer Review :

Ideal Travel Companion

Ted Conover is the ideal travel companion. He seems equally comfortable standing in a swanky apartment in the Upper East Side, and tramping through the rain forest of Peru. In this book he takes us to places we'd otherwise never see: One day we're riding a mahogany raft down the Mother of God River in Peru, another day we're being herded through a dusty check-point in Ramallah. We get to know people we'd never otherwise meet: an African truck driver, teenagers from a remote Himalayan village, and an ambulance crew in Lagos, Nigeria. Roads connect these people. So does Conover's unerring eye for detail, and his pitch-perfect ear for language. This book is more than just an adventure: it's an invitation to understand each other and to know the world in which we live.

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maps?

Since it's really difficult (or impossible) to read maps on a Kindle, the Kindle edition for a book like this is just too expensive.

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NPR audio review of this book by Maureen Corrigan

I am passing this along for your listening pleasure:

[..]

She is generally positive and does mention specifically the male dominated nature of transportation.

She reviews the variety of international aspects of human mobility which the author discusses at length.


Rating :

Well written and thought provoking

I downloaded this to my Kindle after reading a positive review in The New Yorker.
Each of the pieces in this book have a different feel, all presented a different view on a subject I had read about many times before - the destruction of the Amazon rain forest, the spread of AIDS and corruption in Africa, the emerging middle-class in China, the interminable violence on the West Bank and so on, but these stories give a much more intimate, personal feel to those stories, an opportunity to feel it up close - to give you a sense of personal experience.
The piece on the West Bank is one of the best pieces of reporting I have read in years.

Highly recommended.

Rating :

It's Hard To Build Without Destroying

We love roads, and we come to hate them. "Anyone," writes Conover in his opening paragraph, "who has benefited from a better road--a shorter route, a smoother and safer drive--can testify to the importance of good roads. But when humans strive, we also err, and it is hard to build without destroying."

That contradiction, that tension underlies the book. A road from Peru's Altiplano into the jungle allows access to valuable mahogany trees, but also threatens primitive people and an established ecology. In East Africa, a road that is a clear economic boon to many has also helped the spread of AIDS, via truckers and prostitutes along its length. Roads are integral to development, and development can look disastrous.

There is nothing armchair about Conover's reporting. He clearly has a library and has read widely, but each of the six chapters is written from inside a culture, whether the author is zipping along the new highways of China or riding inside an ambulance through the teeming, chaotic city of Lagos, Nigeria. It's a book full of people, and the conflicts are inevitable. Why, a friend asks the author, would he go to Lagos, a city which Conover admits has "few museums, not too many antiquities, only a handful of public spaces or buildings of note, and stunningly little natural beauty. It does, however, have a reputation for crime, and lots of lots of people." Because people are interesting, Conover says, and "So is crime."

So are the politics of Israel and Palestine--and the chapter on the roads of the West Bank is the best piece of journalism I've ever read about that conflict. Conover explores the Israeli checkpoints in the company of both Palestinians and the Israeli soldiers who try to control them. It's degrading to both sides. The soldiers are looking for guns, explosives and suicide bombers, and most Palestinians are simply trying to get to work, or get home. Israel's management of the West Bank often comes down to restricting the travel of the Palestinians, and when Conover is in line with them as they move on foot toward a pair of turnstiles, "an exercise in gradual compression," the reader gets a visceral feel for their frustration and humiliation.

The soldiers don't like it either. "Innocent civilians...are inevitably damaged by the army's work in the territories," Conover writes. He spends weeks with an Israeli commander and his men, who not only run the checkpoints but sometimes tear up Palestinian houses in search of arms. It's bad for the families, the commander says, "But what's not plain until the fifteenth time is that it's bad for you."

Six fascinating travels interspersed with engaging personal essays: a great book.



Rating :

1. ISBN13: 9781605500638
2. Condition: NEW
3. Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
4. Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Editorial Review :

Sure, it’s the Happiest Place on Earth, but how much do the 45 million-plus people who visit the Disney World theme parks annually really know about it? From where to find all the hidden Mickeys to the truth behind Madame Leota’s ring at the Haunted Mansion, readers learn all about the hidden magic that permeates these fabulous resorts in this tell-all handbook. Readers also get the insider’s take on:

• The smell of home-baked cookies on Main Street in the Magic Kingdom
  
• The Fountain of World Friendship in Epcot that contains water from rivers and oceans around the globe
  
• Walt Disney’s opening day speech tapped out in Morse Code in Frontierland
  
• The eco-friendly benches (recycled milk jugs) in the Animal Kingdom
  
• Two versions of The Great Movie Ride at Disney’s Hollywood Studios
  

Customer Review :

Revealing information but A LOT of it

I really enjoyed this book. I have been going to Disney World ever since I was a newborn. This is the first time I purchased a book about Disney World because I wanted to know a little bit more about the place i love. The book has a lot of really interesting facts, but there are so many little facts that the book gets a little complicated to read. The book, at some points is described as if you are walking through each of the parks, and unless you vividly remember each section, you're not going to know what the author is talking about. I suggest reading the book with the virtual map of Disney World that you can find online or through google earth, it makes it less confusing because you "see" exactly what the author is talking about. Overall this book got 4 stars from me because it presented some interesting facts but didn't need to include the initials of every imagineer that ever created anything....

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Not what I was looking for

I was looking for a book to help me plan my family's trip to Disney World this coming summer. We live on the West coast and will only be traveling over and spending that ammount once. So, I want to get the biggest bang for our buck. I ordered this book hopeing it would give me tips on which rides to get to first and so on. I didn't get any information from the book other than different histories and meanings behind certain things. If you are able to get to Disney World regularly, this would be cool to read. But, if like me, you plan on making the trip once, this book isn't the one to get. Birnbaum's book was VERY helpful and gave me all I was looking for to help me plan the trip. After reading Birnbaum's book, I feel prepared.

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Hidden Disney and Amazon Magic

It took a couple of weeks for my book, "The Hidden Magic of Walt Disney World" to arrive, but when it did, I was delighted. The book was in perfect condition...probably never opened, as it didn't even have that telltale crease on the edge of the cover. Thank You Amazon; you helped to make my Disney Vacation that much more pleasurable!
-judy-

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Don't waste your money...

Blatently wrong, misleading, inaccurate, and outdated information in this book. Don't waste your money.

Rating :

Terrible

this book is terrible. i feel like i'm on a bad tour with a horrible guide. there is no big secrets or shocking facts. the book merely points out the obvious.

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1. ISBN13: 9780061894565
2. Condition: NEW
3. Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Customer Review :

More Diners, Drive-ins and Dives: A Drop-Top Culinary Cruise Through America's Finest and Funkiest Joints

I was amazed how fast we received the book and it was in excellent condition.

Rating :

More Diners, Drive-ins and Dives pbk

Fun book! Along with Fieri's TV show, it makes you want to jump in your car and start exploring these fun places to eat! Recommend it for anyone who likes driving trips and eating.

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Three D

I enjoy the TV show and during road trips I look for places that made the show. I have found a couple and found them as presented. The book has several of the restaurant's recepies which I'm trying to duplicate. Just my place doesn't have the ambiance.

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More Diners, Drive-ins and Dives: A Drop-Top Culinary Cruise Through America's Finest and Funkiest Joints

As with his previous book, //More Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives// is in author Guy Fieri's own words, off the hook. If you are a fan of his Food Network TV show of the same name, you will love this book. It's fun to read - even if you never plan to make any of the recipes included in the book. The reader gets a glimpse of the behind-the-scenes anecdotes and people involved in the making of the TV show, and includes Guy's local color comments and recipes from 52 locations around the United States. Some of the offerings are the Lobster Sandwich from Kelly's Diner in Somerville, Mass., The Turducken from Alpine Steakhouse in Sarasota, Fla., the Italian Roast Beef Pizza from The Original Vito & Nick's Pizzeria in Chicago, Ill., and the Gorilla Mac and Cheese from Pacifica, Calif. (not too far down the road from where I live and definitely on my list for my next road trip).

I recommend you get two copies of this book--one to keep in your car and one to keep in your kitchen. As Guy would say, "that's money."

Reviewed by Sharon LeBrun

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More Diners, Drive Ins, and Divas

WONDERFUL, I do hope Guy writes another one, as he conitinues to criss cross America, finding wonderful Family Businesses.

I have now have both Books and will use it as I go on a road trip and try out a few of these places. Wonderful.

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1. ISBN13: 9780393326154
2. Condition: USED - GOOD
3. Notes:
4. Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Editorial Review :

"Unique among survival books...stunning...enthralling. Deep Survival makes compelling, and chilling, reading."—Penelope Purdy, Denver Post

After her plane crashes, a seventeen-year-old girl spends eleven days walking through the Peruvian jungle. Against all odds, with no food, shelter, or equipment, she gets out. A better-equipped group of adult survivors of the same crash sits down and dies. What makes the difference?

Examining such stories of miraculous endurance and tragic death—how people get into trouble and how they get out again (or not)—Deep Survival takes us from the tops of snowy mountains and the depths of oceans to the workings of the brain that control our behavior. Through close analysis of case studies, Laurence Gonzales describes the "stages of survival" and reveals the essence of a survivor—truths that apply not only to surviving in the wild but also to surviving life-threatening illness, relationships, the death of a loved one, running a business during uncertain times, even war.

Fascinating for any reader, and absolutely essential for anyone who takes a hike in the woods, this book will change the way we understand ourselves and the great outdoors.

Customer Review :

Not just "survivor" stories--so much more!

Laurence Gonzales was impressed with the story of his father's survival during WWII, falling five miles out of the sky in an airplane and living to tell the tale. He was intrigued with the questions of not only how people survive in extreme circumstances, but also about how and why skilled people who should know better get into these situations. He explains quite a bit about how our brains and instincts work both for us and against us in these circumstances, and in so doing, produces a work that's fascinating, scientific, and compellingly readable. His summaries of what places people in peril and what helps them survive seemed so vital that I ended up reading the book twice, while ignoring a stack of unread books on my nightstand! I recommend this book to any reader, even the non-adventurous, and I look forward to reading his latest book as well.

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Top Gun meets Tao te Ching

I liked this book but it got on my nerves.

If you liked the movie Top Gun; if you think the guys with the need for speed are "elite" (a term the author uses throughought the book when referring to his heroes, and you get the sense he includes himself in that number); if you love the macho adrenaline junkie jargon (which the author sometimes doesn't even bother to translate for us ordinary folk), you may love this book.

On the other hand; if the guys in Top Gun sometimes grate on your nerves; if you think football heroes, aviators, race car drivers and military men can sometimes be full of themselves and overrated; this book will definitely get on your nerves.

The author has some interesting insights, but if he could just get over himself, his Daddy and all of the other "elite" performers running around avoiding death, it would be a much more palatable read.

This guy comes off a bit like a narcissist. His book screams "Look how *awesome* these dudes are and I'm one of THEM!!!!" He does name drop; he does seem to be talking down at us peons much of the time and spiritual quotes get thrown in sometimes as if they were in an SNL skit. Has more than a healthy dose of ego, this guy does. We "get" how special he and his homies are a few pages into it.

I disagree with a reviewer who says he is sexist. True, most of his heroes are male, but there are a few female heroines that get their due in the book and they are pretty awesome chicks too.

He does have some good information and interesting insights for us about the mindset and actions we need to survive scary situations. Information we can all use, God forbid, should we find ourselves in a dread situation.

Take the good and blow off the bad, if you can. It's worth reading, but be ready to roll your eyes shake your head at the storyteller more than a few times.

Rating :

Reads like a thriller...

Take a deep breath... say goodbye to family and friends for few hours or days... pick up the book... you won't stop reading if you're interested in outdoors. I started listening to the book on a Friday and couldn't stop until I finished it on the weekend. The book goes from one disaster to another...by the time you come to grips with one, another disaster is waiting. I agree with author's conclusion that knowing when you're pushing the envelope and when you're risking life is the difference. I recalled and relived two incidents in my outdoor life when I was close to making bad decisions.. both times trying to take short cuts in wilderness... Fortunately I backtracked and survived.

I read it just to enjoy the book itself.. not necessarily correlate lessons to another area f life.

Rating :

Reading Deep Survival

A park ranger, while leading me on a rescue mission for my friend, on a very dark night in the wilderness, recommended this book. So I went to Amazon.com and bought it. It has changed the way I think about a lot of things I do. It's not so much a book of survival techniques or stories of heroism as it is a book of how people who survive dangerous situations think. There are some concrete ideas about thinking and will that apply to everyone's life whether we expect to be in danger or not. Well written, easily comprehended, compelling - some adjectives to describe this book.

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Look beyond the cheesy title

Fabulous book about the philosophy of survivors and surviving.
Filled with incredible accounts of survival and non-survival, and comparisons between them. This is one of the best books of the year. Fantastic!

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