The Baedeker guides are less well known in America than they deserve to be. They are harder to find in bookstores than the very good Rough guide or Michelin Green guide series or the awful Fodor series.
This guidebook very pleasantly surprised me. There is a wealth of information here with profuse colour illustrations and details I haven't seen in other guidebooks. The book provides excellent in-depth supplemental information in the Baedeker's special sections. In this book there are helpful sidebars about the Mafia and the famous tonnara off Favignana (refereed to here as the "mattanza.") The small mountain town of Corleone made famous in the Godfather movies is nowhere to be found in other guidebooks but is given ample attention here. The fabulous Norman sites of Palermo are described in great detail. I was inspired to read John Julius Norwich's excellent history "The Normans in Sicily" by the information presented in this book. The short lived Norman dynasty of the 11th and 12th century left monuments in Sicily and especially Palermo that are still important features today. William the Conqueror's (Guillame le Conquerant) half brother Otho, bishop of Bayeux (who commissioned the Bayeux tapestry) came to Sicily after falling out of power in England. He died in Palermo in 1097 enroute to participating in the first Crusade.
The guide gives well-deserved great detail to the fabulous Greek ruins of Sicily. I became less satisfied with my other Sicily guides after seeing all that they left out compared to this book. The Baedeker guide is a pocket sized 16mo and comes with a plastic jacket and a small map that is inadequate for driving directions but okay for familiarizing yourself with the geography.

The little known Oxford Archaeological Guides series provides information that you cannot find elsewhere This guide was written by Henry Cleere in 2001 and gives information about many of the (mostly Roman) archaeological sites of southern France. Sites are described in great detail with an emphasis on how the site might have looked in ancient times and changes occurring over centuries. Information is provided here that I have not seen in any other guidebook. The amazing Roman bridge the Pont du Gard, near Nimes, is described in great detail. This immense stone structure was built in 20 BC over the river Gard to supply water to the expanding settlement of Nemausus (present day Nimes). The automobile-sized stone blocks of which the bridge is built were quarried from a site less than a kilometer upstream. There is no better illustration of the power and wealth of ancient Rome than that such a massive structure was built (50 meters high and 275 meters wide) merely to provide abundant water for a minor settlement. Other not-to-be missed sites are given the attention they deserve: The very similar amphitheaters of Arles and Nimes are well described. The beautiful Roman theater and the triumphal arch at Orange are explored in detail I have not seen elsewhere. This book would not be suitable as the only guidebook to take with you on a trip, the information provided is far too specialized. I'd recommend taking along the Michelin Green guides or the Knopf guide for Provence as well. Some minor drawbacks: the drawings and maps are not as detailed as they could be and the few photographs that are provided are black and white and of poor quality. These complaints are not critical flaws; the book would still be invaluable even if it didn't contain a single illustration.

This remarkable book was James Dickey's first novel. The story is familiar to everyone who has seen the John Boorman-directed movie for which Dickey wrote the screenplay. I reread this recently after reading it over a decade ago and was stuck by how little action there actually is this the quintessential adventure story. Much of the novel is Ed Gentry's inner monologue. He thinks about his life and his dissatisfaction with his job. The canoe trip of this story is taken at the instigation of Lewis Medlock, the character played in the movie by Burt Reynolds. Ed regards it almost as a chore to be endured in order to please his friend. He goes through the motions without any passion until placed in a kill or be killed life threatening situation. You could say that Ed's ordeal is a rite of manhood. Despite being a man in his late thirties, he has not yet proved his own worth to himself. Like a manchild of a primitive tribe, he is sent out into the wilderness and must survive by his owns wits and courage or die trying.

In 1909, just after the end of his term as President, Theodore Roosevelt traveled to Africa for a year long safari.The trip was a major undertaking ; hundreds of porters were needed to carry his baggage. Roosevelt's son, Kermit came along, taking photographs which are reproduced in the book. Roosevelt and company bag hundred of animals. It appears that all hunting rules were suspended for the ex-president. Roosevelt and son are soon blasting away at anything and everything that comes into view. British East Africa is described in terms that make today's politically correct readers wince. Attitudes have changed dramatically in less than one hundred years. It is odd to hear Roosevelt describe parts of Africa as a "white man's country," suitable for large scale settlement by Europeans. The book bogs down and I was unable to read it without skimming through some parts. The descriptions of marching through wilderness and chasing after game on foot and on horseback seem to go on forever. There is a lot of great infomation here even if it is necessary to become your own editor by skipping though tedious parts.

After having read almost all of Leonard's crime novels, I finally got to this, his best known western. Written in 1961, it was made into the 1967 Paul Newman movie. I was surprised at the differences here compared to recent Leonard novels. The anti-hero, John Russell, is a young white man raised by Apaches in 19th century Arizona. He inherits some property which requires taking a trip away from the reservation. On this trip a stage coach robbery goes wrong and Russell fights the robbers to the death. Like all other Leonard protagonists, Russell is a man of action and of few words. Unlike other Leonard heroes, he inexplicably sacrifices himself at the end of the book to save a women that neither he nor the others really care about. Chili Palmer, Frank Ryan, or Ernest Stickley would have never done a thing like that. Leonard employs an unusual device of having one of the minor characters narrate the story. Later books have either an omniscient narrator of the protaganist's inner dialogue serving as narrator. Very good but not as much fun as more recent hits.

The Green Guide Sicily was added to this series in 1998 and gives you all the information you need for a trip to Sicily.

Sicily is not just the birthplace of the Mafia that Hollywood has led you to believe. It's a sleepy place untouched by tourist throngs with a wealth of beautiful Greek ruins. I visited in July 2001 and used this book as my main travel book. As in all the Michelin guides the cities and tourist attractions are listed are organized alphabetically without any geographic considerations so you need to refer to a map to find an unfamiliar place. There are limited maps printed at the beginning of the book. Hours of opening with telephone numbers are given at the back of the book for the major attractions. This is critically important; you don't want to drive across the island to arrive at place that's closed for the 3 to 4 hour midday siesta. Tourist amenities are limited in Sicily, I stayed at one of the best hotels in Palermo (according to the Italy Red Guide) and it was awful. In some remote places finding a place to buy cool drinks or snacks is a challenge that Americans used to having convenience stores everywhere will notice. The upside of this is that there are so few tourists that you get a unique perspective on the places you see. I spent 90 minutes at the superb Greek temple at Segesta during which I was the only person there for most of the time. There weren't many people at the Selunente or Agrigento Greek temples either. The guide refrains from gossipy editorializing, sticking to one or two pages of facts and picture or two of important sites. There is a useful system of prioritizing sites; Three stars is a must see, one star for sites worth visiting if you're in the area or have extra time on your hands. I found that I usually agreed.

The two books contained in this Modern Library edition are organized by species with each chapter devoted to hunting a particular animal during a hunting trips in the late 19th century in the American West. Some hunts were primarily intended to harvest meat while others were more oriented towards collecting trophy specimens. At other times Roosevelt stumbles upon game and kills it merely because it happens to cross his path. The bloodthirstyness of the hunters will be a shock to modern readers. Even those familiar with hunting may be taken aback by Roosevelt's "kill anything that moves" hunting philosophy. A modern hunter is limited by hunting seasons, bag limits and will usually not kill females with young. This was not the case in Roosevelt's day. He and his hunting companions gleefully slaughter any animal they come upon whether it's a bear sow with immature juveniles or a large record-book specimen. It was a different time then but it is laughable to hear Roosevelt described as a concerned conservationist and proto animal rights activist if you have really read his writing. There is one particularly disturbing episode where Roosevelt is sitting beside a stream with his hunting companions and sees a small animal walking along unafraid. In a matter of seconds Roosevelt pounces on the small creature, gutting and skinning it with his bare hands and laughing at his Native American companion's uneasyness at his needless cruelty.

Roosevelt's writing has an unfortunate tendency towards hyperbole. For example, he is incapable of simply eating a meal, instead he has a magnificent feast or a delicious repast. There is an annoying tendency to employ cute phrases that grate on a modern reader's ear. He refers to bears as "Ephraim" or "Bruin" and all large animals are "brutes" or "savage brutes." Putting aside these minor complaints this book is a fascinating historical document which contains information about the natural history of North American game species that is still useful to hunters and outdoorsmen today.

This is the fourth installment in Reynolds's five part Hemingway biography. During this period Hemingway lived mostly in Key West. He wrote his first non-fiction bullfight book, Death in the Afternoon, To Have and Have Not and For Whom the Bell Tolls. He also spent a lot of time in latter part of this decade as a journalist covering the Spanish Civil War. He meets the journalist Martha Gellhorn in Key West and begins the relationship that will break up his second marriage.

Reynolds does a good job here but it is not as good as the two previous installments. There is much less detail given here compared to those books especially with regards to Hemingway's thoughts and state of mind while writing the books of this period. The other books had a nearly page by page account of what the great man was doing and thinking while he wrote The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms. This is noticeably lacking here. The account of the writing of For Whom the Bell Tolls is especially curt. That book, which is regarded as Hemingway's masterpiece, doesn't get the attention Reynolds gave to earlier works. I read somewhere that Hemingway contacted his publisher Charles Scribner during the writing of For Whom the Bell Tolls, telling him that one of the Spanish Civil War short stories he was writing had taken off in his mind and that he already had written 40,000 words. This information is nowhere to be found here. Instead there are gossipy details of the relationship with Gellhorn and the unkind treatment Hemingway's second wife, Pauline, received at the end of their marriage.

There is a long account of Hemingway's first African safari which I found uninteresting. Reynolds stresses his subject's need to recreate the "summer people" of his youth, the group of friends that would gather at Walloon Lake in Michigan every summer of Hemingway's boyhood. Reynolds's tries to force every single relationship to fit this "summer people" thesis even when it is less than apt. There is overlong attention given to hunting trips and less attention to the actual writing than I would have liked. Reynolds has a disturbing tendency here to introduce a new person into Hemingway's life story without much explanation of how they came to meet and what caused them to be friendly. On several occasions a new friend will enter Hemingway's life and without any explanation immediately become the center around which the narrative revolves. This is unsettling and made me page back on several occasions looking for the first appearance of this person. Overall, a poor follow up to the previous books in this series.

This book was produced as a companion to the National Portrait Gallery's Hemingway centennial celebration. It is a handsome quarto. The book is only 160 pages and much of that is text explaining the pictures. I expected more pictures and was disappointed with this book. Having read several Hemingway
biographies and nearly all of his books I was disappointed that this book didn't even include everything I'd seen elsewhere. The recent Hemingway on Hunting compilation, for examples, contains many great pictures that are not included here. To give the editor credit, the pictures included are reproduced very
nicely. There are also some pictures included of the first edition dustjackets of many of Hemingway's classics. Inexplicably some of these dustjackets are shelfworn creased examples; I'm sure it would not have been impossible to find perfect examples to photograph for this book if some effort had been made. This is a book that is worth spending 30 minutes browsing through in a library but I can't recommend paying [money] dollars for it.

I am a Philip K. Dick fan but I didnï¿t like this book much. The plot here doesnï¿t make much sense. The usual quirky take on the world of tomorrow is there. The central figure Jason Taverner (who is not the title character) is not particularly likable nor are his thoughts as expressed in his internal dialogue especially believable. This book gave me the impression that the author used the slim plot of the story as a framework to give us his take on situations from his own life and from events of the day. (The book was written in the early seventies.) Taverner is a smarmy variety show host in the early ï¿70ï¿s Johnny Carson mold. He is assaulted by a deranged woman with whom heï¿s had a predatory sexual relationship and is grievously wounded. He loses consciousness and wakes up in sleazy motel. Taverner discovers that he has lost his identity: no oneï¿s ever heard of him and thereï¿s no record of his existence. Taverner meets a delusional petite young woman and fantasizes about sex with her. Soon after they meet she demands that he have sex with her and he immediately is turned off. He meets an aging ex-girlfriend and takes advantage of her hospitality, putting her in danger of a police jam in the process. He cruelly mocks her fading looks to her face. Thereï¿s a funny scene where he describes a mural depicting the ascent into heaven of Richard M. Nixon. The policeman of the title and his S&M-minded sister seemed like bizarre characters inserted more for their weirdness than for appropriateness to the story. The powerful ruthless policeman shows that, underneath it all, heï¿s just a touchy feely guy who would like to give the world a hug and a flower. His sister, on the other hand, is interested in weird sex and mind altering drugs. Thereï¿s an unlikely background story of a fascist police state holding left leaning university campuses in a state of siege; students are hunted down for extermination or deportation to labour/death camps. Itï¿s all very cute and funny but not enough to justify a book. I read this straight through on a ten-hour plane flight and I was left feeling emotionally isolated and disassociated and wanting those hours back.