“Travel book reviews: Heights of Madness; History and Mystery: New York - Daily Telegraph” plus 2 more |
- Travel book reviews: Heights of Madness; History and Mystery: New York - Daily Telegraph
- Book reviews: 'He Crashed Me So I Crashed Him Back' and 'Racing While ... - Washington Post
- Book Reviews - MLive.com
| Travel book reviews: Heights of Madness; History and Mystery: New York - Daily Telegraph Posted: 01 Mar 2010 03:33 AM PST HEIGHTS OF MADNESSBy Jonny Muir (Metro, £7.99) Energetic is certainly a word that could be used to describe Jonny Muir, who set out to climb (for charity) the highest points in each of the counties in the UK in three months. To make it harder, he decided to eschew all forms of transport apart from those he could propel himself. A bicycle and his feet, therefore, were his chosen modes, but he vowed not to use public transport, or hitch a lift, however tempting. Already a keen walker, his motivation for the trip was in part a desire to redefine what "adventure" should mean. He wanted to prove to himself that it could be something anyone can achieve, without having to travel to the farthest corners of the globe. This is a quietly inspirational and often funny account of his adventures in his homeland. Extract: "Moel Sych lies at the lonesome heart of the Berwyns, Snowdonia's ugly sister. The hills lack the jagged awe of Snowdonia and, as a result, escape the crowds of the National Park. The road clung to the eastern edge of Llyn Tegid, Wales' largest natural lake, passed the Bala Lake Railway and took off over the high pass of Llangynog. A steep hairpin road through the woods catapulted me onto the moor, with the Berwyns rising gently to the east. It was a euphoric 45 minutes of cycling, a gentle wind at my back and scarcely a car on the road." HISTORY AND MYSTERY: NEW YORKBy Michelle and James Nevius (AA Guides £9.99) The first Europeans to settle in New York were employees of the Dutch West India Company. Immigrants flocked to the city thereafter, creating distinct districts that even today make this an excellent place to discover on foot. This book contains 24 themed walks of between 1.2 and 2.5 miles. A well-designed guide, it has several pages devoted to each walk, plus a detailed map. A short introduction to the cultural background of the district covered is followed by numbered points en route. Details of the background of buildings passed are also included, with excellent notes on the less obvious and more idiosyncratic architecture. The "mystery" element of the guide concerns various hidden corners of the city. There's also a sidebar on the best places to eat in each area. A useful guide that will enrich a holiday to the Big Apple. Extract: "The term East Village was created after World War II to convince renters that they were moving into an area which had more in common with genteel Greenwich Village than with the teeming Lower East Side, to which these streets were once considered integral… The large number of German immigrants to the city after 1848 changed the neighbourhood's character and for the rest of the 19th century it was known as Kleindeutschland – "Little Germany". The sinking of the steamship General Slocum in 1904, carrying parishioners from St Mark's Church on an outing, killed 1,021 people and destroyed the German community." Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Book reviews: 'He Crashed Me So I Crashed Him Back' and 'Racing While ... - Washington Post Posted: 01 Mar 2010 12:05 AM PST The True Story of the Year the King, Jaws, Earnhardt, and the Rest of NASCAR's Feudin', Fightin' Good Ol' Boys Put Stock Car Racing on the Map By Mark Bechtel Little, Brown. 308 pp. $25.99 RACING WHILE BLACK How an African-American Stock-Car Team Made Its Mark on NASCAR By Leonard T. Miller, with Andrew Simon Seven Stories. 319 pp. $24.95 A pivotal moment in the saga of NASCAR (the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) came toward the end of the Daytona 500 in 1979, when one stock-car driver, Cale Yarborough, had an encounter with another, Donnie Allison. As Yarborough explained it: "He turned left and crashed me. So, hell, I crashed him back." What made the crashing -- and there are varying reports as to who crashed whom -- so important was the ensuing brawl. Fighting -- or fightin', as the subtitle of Mark Bechtel's book on the national emergence of NASCAR has it -- is endemic to the sport, but this was caught on national TV. In fact, it was the first time a NASCAR race had been broadcast in its entirety, and numerous city slickers happened to tune in because an epic snowstorm across the nation kept them homebound. "For something like [the fight] to happen in stock car racing was a common, ordinary, everyday thing almost," Humpy Wheeler, a legendary promoter of NASCAR, told Bechtel. "But to happen on TV in front of the American public just brought out this hidden culture that we had, where you settle things like a man, with your fists." Although the fight helped put NASCAR in the American consciousness, good ol' boys have been racing stock cars for generations. Their sport has its roots in another facet of rural Southern culture: moonshine. Junior Johnson, the subject of a celebrated 1965 profile by Tom Wolfe and a prominent figure in Bechtel's book, started his racing career as a moonshiner. Trying to outrun the tax gents, Johnson invented a brilliant maneuver forever known as the "bootleg turn," in which the moonshiner makes a quick U-turn and heads off in the opposite direction, passing his astonished pursuer. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Posted: 27 Feb 2010 06:13 AM PST by Jennifer Williams Bright Sky Press, 2009, 188 pages, $14.95 Recommended for ages 4 – 11 Jennifer Williams, a Presidential Award-winning science teacher, has created a terrific resource for parents and children. Each of the 20 experiments presented links a favorite children's book with solid science. "Bartholomew and the Oobleck," "Chocolate Fever," and "Strega Nona" are just a few of the titles included. The author also gives a brief but informative chapter on how to use the book for best results. Each experiment is clearly labeled with the appropriate age, helpful hints and any safety concerns. This title will have families turning their kitchens into entertaining science labs! Linda Bryant, Hoyt Library Children's Department "You Are Not a Gadget: a Manifesto," by Jaron Lanier Published by Alfred A. Knopf, 2010, 224 pages, More than two decades after the Web was created, and 10 years after virtual reality seemed like the far-off future, "You Are Not a Gadget" is the first book from the man who created both the technology and the term of virtual reality. The author discusses both the problems and the potential of the Internet, especially as we head deeper into the increasingly interactive world of Web 2.0. If you've found yourself becoming a little uneasy with how technology is shifting the landscape of our private lives, this title will be of interest. Trish Burns, Saginaw Public Library Director Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
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