1. ISBN13: 9781741791570
2. Condition: NEW
3. Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Editorial Review :

Nobody knows Thailand like Lonely Planet. Our 13th edition will have you soaking up the sun on the island paradises of the south, trekking among the hill tribes and riding elephants in Chiang Mai, discovering the ancient temples of Sukhothai and snapping up bargains or being pampered in a spa in Bangkok.

Lonely Planet guides are written by experts who get to the heart of every destination they visit. This fully updated edition is packed with accurate, practical and honest advice, designed to give you the information you need to make the most of your trip.

In This Guide:

Detailed advice on everything from food & drink to transport & health
Special 'Thailand & You' chapter with tips on culture and etiquette
Extensive Deep South coverage eases your travels in the conflicted region

Customer Review :

Type is ridiculously small - DO NOT BUY

This book appears to contain the compendium of knowledge regarding Thailand. Too bad the font is so small that even my teenage daughter says it hurts her eyes. DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK unless you want to use a magnifying glass to read it. Very disappointed.

Rating :

Just short...

When I travel, I swear by Lonely Planet, so I'm used to a certain standard of content and clarity. Although I only used about a quarter of this book's total content on my last journey, there were certain instances where more information would have been certainly preferred; and had me and my partner not been as savvy as we were, whole days could've been compromised. However this guide was still extremely helpful, overall.

Rating :

Surprisingly mediocre

I really expected more from this book. It had basic info about lodging and food, but really quite basic and obvious stuff. I was frustrated many times looking for places to eat. The section on Koh Samui was almost totally useless. There was nothing here to make it worth the price.

Rating :

The Travel Bible, a bit dated

Known as "The Book", this is the standard for any travel guide to Thailand. I'm glad they are coming out with a new edition, though. On my recent trip, more than half of the restaurants we tried to find in Chiang Mai had either moved across town or shut down since The Book was last published. If you are in the market, pre-order the new edition instead, which will hopefully sport updated information.

By the way, I highly recommend the Chiang Dao Nest - bungalows set in the beautiful forests and mountains north of Chiang Mai, and amazing food despite the remote location.

Rating :

LP provide the best guide to exploring a country

Lonely Planet guides consistently provide accurate information. It is great especially for people who budget travel, travel light (backpack) and want some adventure.

Rating :

More reviews...

1. ISBN13: 9780802170521
2. Condition: NEW
3. Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Editorial Review :

Customer Review :

Adolescent

Parody can be the funniest of all types of humor, so it was with high expectations that when I saw the book cover of Andrew Gottlieb's, Drink, Play, [...], as a match to Elizabeth Gilbert's popular Eat, Pray, Love, I picked it up with relish. I had given Gilbert a two-star rating, and never bothered to write a review. Following a divorce, protagonist Bob Sullivan decides to let himself go loose for the first time in his life, and see what happens. His first step was to drink, and he did that with gusto in Ireland, meeting compatible characters and telling stories to all who would listen. I wish this book had such gusto, but the drinking episode came across as maudlin. The pace picked up when Bob heads to Vegas to play, and along the way meets a guru who guides him through the Vegas games. The gambling, golfing and playing had little humor and unexceptional stories. At just the right time, the guru suggests the pleasures of Thailand, and Bob ends up in a remote resort to enjoy great physical satisfaction, until a car accident. While I laughed at times, there just wasn't enough laughter to make the full parody work. By the end of the book, I couldn't care less what happened to Bob.

Rating: One-star (Read only if your interest is strong)


Rating :

Didn't read "Eat Pray Love"

It is an ok read. I didn't read the book it parodies. Maybe that would have made this better.

Rating :

Hilarious parody!

This was a great way to see how a man would love to spend a year on a spiritual journey! You definitely have to read Eat, Pray, Love first in order to get the full effect. The first two-thirds of the journey were funnier than the last third, but it was still entertaining. I wanted it to be a true story, and wish it had been a little more realistic so I could have believed it to be.

Rating :

Novelization of real experience ?

I have to say that my attitude to this book changed once I discovered (although I had my inklings) that this book is fiction. Maybe that make it more impressive, but just know that the author did not directly do all the stuff in the book, or at least, this is not non-fiction. And still, it is a very funny book and a very good concept. To title it "Drink, Play, F@#k", as a kind of play on "Eat, Pray, Love" is a great "man's take" on a book that many reviewers found ego-centric and self-indulgent, but without self-deprecation or humor. This book is packed with more humor than a Harry Reid bill is packed with pork barrel spending. I for some reason found Ireland in the book a bit of a cliche. Ok, this is the country where the police wait for you to pick up your car the morning after, and then bust you because you still have a BAC of 0.02 ? That does not jive with a depiction of Bob in an 'adult diaper and clown wig'. My guess is that the Irish police would have picked "Bob" up and thrown him in the drunk tank, not just let him lay on a bridge. The depiction of a society totally oriented around drinking would fit Scotland much better than Ireland, where the number of people who don't drink at all is much higher (my dad saw a guy fall flat on his face in the men's room of a Scottish pub, breaking his nose, because he was so hammered).

I found the Vegas chapter better and more descriptive. It actually made me want to go to Vegas. The Thailand chapter is ok for what it is, but I did find one scene to be quite unrealistic.

At the end of the day, yes, there are some unrealistic things in this novel, but I also laughed out loud, and the novel does indeed succeed in what it sets out to do.

The description of the Irish hospital as being "like a men's room at Fenway" (Red Sox ballpark) tells you all you need to know about health care when the government takes it over and it becomes "free and universal". I liked that too.

Rating :

don't waste your time

Having read " Eat, pray, love", I eagerly awaited for the parody on the title. However, there is not even one humorous or witty sentence in this entire book. If this guy can go to print,then by all means, we can all become published writers. I hardly review books but this one was such a mess,I just had to issue a warning. Don't bother reading it unless you like repetitive, stale writting that leaves you disappointed and bored.



Rating :

More reviews...

1. ISBN13: 9780061257223
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 :

Poke Rafferty was writing offbeat travel guides for the young and terminally bored when Bangkok stole his heart. Now the American expat is assembling a new family with Rose, the former go-go dancer he wants to marry, and Miaow, the tiny, streetwise urchin he wants to adopt. But trouble in the guise of good intentions comes calling just when everything is beginning to work out. Poke agrees to take in Superman, Miaow's troubled and terrifying friend from the gutter. Then he agrees to help locate a distraught Aussie woman's missing uncle and accepts a generous payment to find a blackmailing thief. No longer gliding carelessly across the surface of a culture he doesn't really understand, suddenly Poke is plodding through dark and unfamiliar terrain—and everything and everyone he loves is in terrible danger.

Customer Review :

Great writing and a gripping tale

You can write me down as a new fan of Timothy Hallanan books. I took Nail Through The Heart, by Timothy Hallinan, with me to New York and have been totally immersed ever since. What a delicious thriller. I hated for it to end. Luckily I have his newest waiting for me, all I can say is lucky me.
The writing is rich, imagistic, real and touching as well as scary all at once. Powerful book, great writer.
Gilda Frantz, Jungian analyst

Rating :

Powerful Thailand Mystery

A Nail Through the Heart introduces Poke Rafferty, who came to Bangkok to research the latest in his "Looking for Trouble" travel guides for the young adventurer. Poke has finished the book, but has found a home in Thailand with Rose, an ex-bar girl, and Miaow, an 8-year-old girl he has rescued from the streets. Miaow in turn rescues a troubled boy known as Superman, who helped her survive before vanishing into drug addiction. Rafferty has a reputation of being able to find those who vanish, and an Australian woman hires him to find her uncle who has gone missing. Rafferty discovers the missing man's unsavory collection of sadistic pornography and soon learns more than he can stand about the brutal reality of Thailand's street children. Despite the disturbing descriptions of sexual depravity, this powerful novel suggests that love can be a redemptive force. Rafferty is an appealing protagonist as he struggles to understand his adoptive country and to cope with the concept that murder may at times be the logical and just solution to combat the personification of evil.

[...]

Rating :

Haunting

Your post: Feb. 4, 2010 11:34 AM PST
E. Crowley says:
A NAIL THROUGH THE HEART, the first of Timothy Hallinan's Bangkok thrillers, balances family, love, loyalty, and hope against evil that destroys the spirit and sacrifices innocence to perversion.

I read A NAIL THROUGH THE HEART a few years ago. Tim's post, "Behind the Smiles", on the Murder is Everywhere blog, sent me back to the book and I am glad it did. I found things I missed in the first reading and I understand some things better because of what I have learned about Thailand through Tim's posts.

In the blog, Tim writes that Bangkok is the "meat market where the children of the poor, both male and female, go to sell their beauty." The men who use them believe "there has to be something real, something genuine, behind smiles like those. And there are: poverty and powerlessness."

A NAIL IN THE HEART is about family, love, loyalty, hope, and the future but it is also about the debasement of the most innocent of humanity and the evil which kills beauty because there is no need for beauty when power is all that matters. Poke's search for a missing man and his maid leads him to Madame Wing who offers Poke the money he needs to speed along adoption process that will make Miaow, and 8 year-old street child, legally his. The money will help his love, Rose, establish her business. Madame Wing wants Poke to find an envelope but he must not look at the contents. One man did and had to die for doing so. The threads come together in the end to a satisfying, almost, conclusion.

This is a book that the reader won't want to put down. Since I first read it, I have thought, on occasion, of "Growing-Younger Man", the man whose face is so tight Poke wonders how he chews. Why do people try so hard to pretend that they haven't experienced life? Why is youth so envied when it is the young who haven't yet had the time to develop the life-skills that allow us to keep living?

But that is a minor issue compared to what the author is really serving up. Child pornography is financed by the people who buy it. Anyone who does is as guilty as the men who perform the abuse. They do it for the world wide audience who know without question that what they are seeing on the screen isn't pretend. And then there is the ultimate question: When is the taking of a life not a wrong? Are all murderers equally guilty? How should society respond when, as Poke says, "The victims were guilty....and the murderers were innocent?"

Finally, the book reminded me that I haven't told my children enough about the killing fields of Cambodia. As the victims of the holocaust should never be forgotten, neither should the victims of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. We have an obligation to them as well.


Rating :

Hope

A NAIL THROUGH THE HEART, the first of Timothy Hallinan's Bangkok thrillers, balances family, love, loyalty, and hope against evil that destroys the spirit and sacrifices innocence to perversion.

I read A NAIL THROUGH THE HEART a few years ago. Tim's post, "Behind the Smiles", on the Murder is Everywhere blog, sent me back to the book and I am glad it did. I found things I missed in the first reading and I understand some things better because of what I have learned about Thailand through Tim's posts.

In the blog, Tim writes that Bangkok is the "meat market where the children of the poor, both male and female, go to sell their beauty." The men who use them believe "there has to be something real, something genuine, behind smiles like those. And there are: poverty and powerlessness."

A NAIL IN THE HEART is about family, love, loyalty, hope, and the future but it is also about the debasement of the most innocent of humanity and the evil which kills beauty because there is no need for beauty when power is all that matters. Poke's search for a missing man and his maid leads him to Madame Wing who offers Poke the money he needs to speed along adoption process that will make Miaow, and 8 year-old street child, legally his. The money will help his love, Rose, establish her business. Madame Wing wants Poke to find an envelope but he must not look at the contents. One man did and had to die for doing so. The threads come together in the end to a satisfying, almost, conclusion.

This is a book that the reader won't want to put down. Since I first read it, I have thought, on occasion, of "Growing-Younger Man", the man whose face is so tight Poke wonders how he chews.

But that is a minor issue compared to what the author is really serving up. Child pornography is financed by the people who buy it. And then there is the ultimate question: When is the taking of a life not a wrong? Are all murderers equally guilty? How should society respond when, as Poke says, "The victims were guilty....and the murderers were innocent?"

A NAIL THROUGH THE HEART is beautiful and compelling.

Beth



Rating :

Very Good Change Of Pace

It's refreshing to have a mystery set in an exotic location such as Bangkok. Poke Rafferty is an expatriate author and dabbles in work as a private detective. This plot has many excellent characters and twists. Rafferty's girl friend who was a former bar girl-prostitute,the young eight year old street former female street urchin whom the couple want to adopt, a young male street hoodlum who is brought into their lives, a former Khmer Rouge torturer from Cambodia, crooked cops, a good hearted murderer and a sex deviate who brutally molested young children. This was a good quick enjoyable read.

Rating :

More reviews...

1. ISBN13: 9781400008292
2. Condition: NEW
3. Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Editorial Review :

Ancient temple ruins, lush rolling hillsides, deserted-island beaches, and mouthwatering cuisine–it all shines with new vitality in this full-color guide to Southeast Asia’s most popular tourist destination. Fodor’s Thailand covers top sights, Thai festivals, the best beach bungalows, how to negotiate a great deal at the market, and more.
• More than 250 color photographs illustrate Thailand’s natural beauty and vibrant culture and help readers choose sights that will make their trip unforgettable
• An all-new, “Experience Thailand” chapter gives readers a peek into Thai culture and features on classic Thai massage, beach-side lodging, local transportation, and eco-travel
• All-new magazine-style features illustrate Thailand’s top sights and attractions, including the Grand Palace, Bangkok street food, Buddhist statuary, southern beaches, and traditional arts and crafts
• Side-trip chapters cover top destinations in Laos and Cambodia
• New dining features and photos provide in-depth introductions to Thailand’s four delectable and unique regional cuisines

Customer Review :

Ready for Thailand!

Thailand has long been identified with Southeast Asia's uniqueness and has also been a powerful magnet for travelers, explorers, and entrepreneurs. Its abundant resources, striking architecture, natural beauty, fascinating people and amazing cuisine have continually proved irresistible. On my latest reading episode, I discovered to my delight, that all of this and more have been included in Fodor's Thailand, 11th Edition Full Color Guide. [...]

The book has been neatly divided into nine major sections which allow the reader to quickly focus on their primary area of interest. As a wiki review, the book covered Bangkok, the Central Plains, the Southern Beaches, Northern Thailand, Isan, and a brief overview of Cambodia along with Laos. In addition, they have thoughtfully included 65 maps, illustrated features and 170 color photos. The amount of detail, information and easy to read style was greatly appreciated. These critical points are not a given when purchasing guide books. Just spend some time in the travel section of your neighborhood bookstore. You will quickly see that all guide books are not created equal!

In my opinion, the mark of an excellent guide book is that it becomes much more than a book. Amazingly, it can become a personal friend. It literally takes on a life of its own. I'm sure some of you can relate. This friend does that plus more by providing "Insider Tips" and directs you to some "Great Finds" that only a savvy local would be capable of sharing. Just like the commercial says, "Don't leave home without it."

Frequently, many guide books do a poor job of bringing a country or city alive in print. Not this one! The writers enable you to experience the energy and pulse of the people, infact the entire nation from the get-go. You can almost taste the spicy hot Thai cusine and smell it being prepared in a back alley kitchen in Bangkok. They even take you for a tour of the Thai markets for an authentic Thai shopping experience. As the writers say, "Take a deep breath and prepare for an intoxicating medley of colors, sounds, smells and tastes." Have you ever tried to bargain in a foreign market? Sound intimidating? Not to worry! Your new friend will share with you a list of Do's and Don'ts when it comes to haggling.

This guide book went well beyond my expectations. If you're considering a visit to Thailand soon or just want a fascinating read, pick up a copy and you'll be smiling before you know it.


Rating :

Excellent in general

Fodor's has done an excellent job with this book. It is clear and well-organized (as compared to Lonely Planet which was a bit overwhelming with information). We stayed at several of the Fodor's Choice hotels (although we used TripAdvisor because of their recent reviews and ranking system), and they were truly amazing choices. On the other hand, given the vast number of restaurants in various cities in Thailand, the Fodor's Choice restaurants were decent but certainly not the most tasty.

Fodor's also gave good information about the Similan Islands, a great place to go scuba diving. We also went to the Phi Phi Islands and Phang Nga bay because of friend's recommendations and Fodor's concurrence.

We stayed in Thailand for two weeks and absolutely loved it! Fodor's helped us with accurate information about the markets, hotels, and maps. A separate map for the Skytrain/Metro in Bangkok would have been helpful. Still, a travel guide like this shows why Fodor's has been successful in the guidebook business for decades.

Rating :

Great book, but not itself travel friendly

I'm planning a trip to Thailand and Cambodia so this book seemed the perfect fit. The descriptions are generally good for hotels/restaurants/attractions. I would like a more graded rating system for attractions so I can budget my time properly. The articles featuring the Grand Palace and Angkor Wat are very good, as are the features on the food. I also appreciate the tidbits on the pictures because it gives more information and makes the pictures even more interesting. The major complaint I have is that the book is heavy due to the full color and high quality paper, but that's because I personally like to carry books with me.

Rating :

1. ISBN13: 9780756636494
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 :

Drawing on the same standards of accuracy as the acclaimed DK Eyewitness Travel Guides, The DK Top 10 Guides use exciting colorful photography and excellent cartography to provide a reliable and useful pocket-sized travel. Dozens of Top 10 lists provide vital information on each destination, as well as insider tips, from avoiding the crowds to finding out the freebies, The DK Top 10 Guides take the work out of planning any trip.

Customer Review :

Good, but insufficient.

We just used this book in Bangkok for a 2-day trip. It's a good book and it definitely highlights the top 10 destinations in Bangkok. Over a 2 day trip, we managed to cover nearly half the items in the 'Top 10' list.

However, the destination pages should have contained more information. Spending 2 pages, 1/2 of them on images, is not sufficient. You can find this same information online across various sites - for free.

But, if you're looking for a guide book for 48-72 hours in Bangkok, without planning in advance, I highly recommend this book. Make sure that you use the back sections of this book for information on what to avoid while in Bangkok.

Rating :

Good guide for one week trip

This guide have many good tips were to go, if you spend one or two weeks in Bangkok. Nice picture's and pocket size outfit. Included map could be little bit wider.

Rating :

Smart little travel guide for Bangkok

The PLUS: 5 Stars!
The guide takes a pyramidal approach to the sights of your destination. So you slowly can work yourself through the areas that really interest you by easily skipping things you would not want to see or visit at all.
It also makes it easy to find the things that are important to you because the descriptions are small enough and pictures further make it easy to attract your interest or pass things by.

The MINUS: 4 Stars!
The good about the Maps is that they are there at all and also that there is an index of some streets.
The contained foldout maps though helpful when there is nothing else at all are not my favorite because they are quite small and are more an overview to identify the area where something is to be found on a better more detailed map. The same maps as the foldouts are also on a separate map that is detachable. This is a good idea but they are way to small and hard to read especially in dim light and in an awkward format to be really useful. - When available, I rather get a local map from the tourist office and transfer my destinations to it.

SUMMARY: 5 Stars!
This guide is an extremely useful sightseeing guide and small enough to be carried with you all the time for quick reference. It also allows you to choose the amount of detail you want to follow for the town: top 10 Highlights - top 10 to each highlight - top ten to some general categories like museums, bars, hotels, restaurants, shopping, and also some specific categories just for this destination like most beautiful Buddhist temples or best entertainment venues.
Insider tips or as they call the sections: "Street smart" round up this little guide. The maps are OK but could be improved. The deficiency of the maps though should not detract from the overall usefulness of this guide for your destination. This is true for a first time visitor with limited or all kinds of time and also for the return visitor, who wants to to repeat some destinations in more detail or avoid the same old top ten but venture out into new territory.

Rating :

Very good but case is very small

The guide is perfect for 3-5 days in Bangkok, but case is very small, so if your close distance sight is not good the guide will not be usable. If your sight is good it is perfect as it is concise, light to carry and updated.

Rating :

Should be called Top 10 Greater Bangkok area.

As with all the Eyewitness Top 10 guides, this book really helps narrow down Bangkok to its best highlights. However, 2 of the 10 items are actually not in the immediate Bangkok area. One is Ayutthaya, the old capital of the Siamese empire, which is 53 miles north of Bangkok. The other is the Damnoen Saduak Floating market, which is 68 miles west of Bangkok. These are far enough to prove a challenge to fit into a short trip into Bangkok.

Rating :

More reviews...