Reviews (1)

Very high-quality paperback and phrasebook
In addition to the phrasebook, and although it's reflected in a higher price, this book has very high-quality production values and materials for a contemporary paperback book. Paper is nice, high-quality gossy, and pages are sewed in signatures as well as glued into the binding, for years of use. Chapters are color-coded with icons on the page edges. Roman phoneticization of Arabic words is set in blue type. Tables use color, and illustrations are in color. The cover looks like durable, woven canvas with a waterproof, plasticized coat.Read more

Subjects:  1. Arabic    2. Arabic language    3. Audio: Juvenile    4. Foreign Language - Dictionaries / Phrase Books    5. Middle East - General    6. Self-instruction    7. Sound recordings for English speakers    8. Spoken Arabic    9. Travel    10. Foreign Language Study / Arabic    11. Language self-study & phrasebooks    12. Middle East   

Editorial Review

Who hasn't dreamed, on a mundane Monday or frowzy Friday, of chucking it all in and packing off to the south of France? Provençal cookbooks and guidebooks entice with provocatively fresh salads and azure skies, but is it really all Côtes-du-Rhône and fleur-de-lis?Author Peter Mayle answers that question with wit, warmth, and wicked candor in Read more

Features

• Audiobook

Reviews (117)

A Vacation for the Mind: A Year in Provence
This book has something for everyone.The anecdotes are charming, funny, and full of deliciously descriptive sentences.I read some passages aloud to whoever will listen.This is the 2nd book I've read by Peter Mayle. I also read "A Good Year" and am currently reading, "Toujours Provence!"Mayle's books are refreshing and delightful to read.

Delicious reading, creme brulee for your head!
I read this book as a follow up to "Almost French" which I thoroughly enjoyed. I wanted more but that author hadn't written anything else (yet?) so I looked to the back cover where there were some recommendations. I am so glad I did!
A Hilarious Vicarious Journey to France
Englishman Peter Mayle and his wife realize what most of us could only dream about--life in the French countryside of Provence.Food and the hearty French life are the themes that run through this book as the Mayles undertake renovating their 200 year old farmhouse.
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Subjects:  1. Abridged Audio - Autobiography/Biography    2. Audio Adult: Books On Tape    3. Audiobooks    4. France    5. General    6. Homes and haunts    7. Mayle, Peter    8. Provence    9. Provence (France)    10. Social life and customs    11. Travel / Europe / France   

Editorial Review

This personal account of many journeys and a life in transition is well served by the author's own reading. Turk's voice conveys the same honesty as his prose, as if inviting the listener for a casual evening of stories around the fire. The reading is not always smooth and polished, but this occasional unsteadiness evokes the essence of the uncertainties and struggles that Turk has confronted and made central to his book. The abridged reading retains the spirit of adventure and self-discovery that propelled Turk to explore Cape Horn, the Northwest Passage, Baffin Island, and Greenland. Listeners may well set off to follow his paddle strokes. (Running time: three hours, two cassettes) Read more

Features

• Abridged
• Audiobook

Reviews (1)

an AMAZING JOUNEY!
Jon Turk made me feel as though I were on the jouney with him.He takesyou through dangerous waters while taking you back through history. Iliked the way he intertwined family making him seem all the more real tolife. I have never been one to take too many risks in life so I admirethis man.He makes you want to go back in time to experience the realityof life. I wish he would write his experience of the actual success ofrounding the horn.I also expected him to make a comment toward puttinghis feet on the table and toasting the queen. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Abridged Audio - Travel    2. Adventure and adventurers    3. Audio - Nonfiction    4. Audio Adult: Books On Tape    5. Biography    6. Biography & Autobiography    7. Essays & Travelogues    8. Explorers    9. General    10. Ocean travel    11. Sailing - Narratives    12. Special Interest - Adventure    13. United States    14. Travel / Adventure   

Features

• Abridged

Subjects:  1. Abridged Audio - Business/Professional    2. Abridged Audio - Misc. Nonfiction    3. Asia - China    4. Audio Adult: Books On Tape    5. Audiobooks    6. China    7. Economic Conditions    8. Forecasting    9. Forecasts    10. Future Studies    11. International - Economics    12. Travel    13. Twenty-first century   

Subjects:  1. Audio Adult: Language    2. Europe - France    3. French    4. French Language    5. Polyglot Phrasebooks    6. Unabridged Audio - Misc.Nonfiction    7. Language self-study & phrasebooks   

Features

• Audiobook

Reviews (5)

This book was invaluable to us
My husband and I travelled to Spain for our honeymoon knowing very little Spanish (cerveza, por favor and gracias were basically it).This book helped us to communicate with ease.The book is organized by situation to allow you to find stuff quickly, and also includes a small dictionary.Its small size made it easy to carry with us everywhere.We also carried the Living Language Spanish-English dictionary to help us translate specific words, but to put them in phrases that actually made sense we used this book.We will definitely buy other phrasebooks by Fodor's for our next trip.

Outstanding
I have this book and several other Spanish language books. This is the best of the lot. It has a dictionary of most common words, a useful phase section with pronunciation and useful information about Spain and Latin America. It is worth every bit of the price. Es muy bueno.

No hablo Espanol!
I'll get straight to the point: Do NOT buy this unless you have a basic, solid knowledge of Spanish already.Read more

Subjects:  1. Audio - Language    2. Foreign Language Study    3. Spanish    4. Spanish: Adult Nonfiction    5. Unabridged Audio - Misc.Nonfiction    6. Language self-study & phrasebooks    7. Travel / General   

Features

• Audiobook
• Unabridged

Reviews (2)

If this were a movie you'd say it's a good story but...
... but the events described in the journals actually happened, and they are fascinating! Their means of travel, of survival, of communicating with the Indians, of hunting game and chasing and being chased by bears -- all described in such detail that you can easily picture it. In addition to being adventurers, these men were romantics and intellectuals. It is no wonder that once their journals reached the east, people started coming west in droves to see the beautiful lands and abundant game they described. The CDs are great for a long drive or the daily commute.

All the good stuff
Are you a Lewis and Clark buff, just starting out? You've read "Undaunted Courage" by Stephen Ambrose, and perhaps a couple other Lewis and Clark books. It's time to read the journals, but you aredaunted by the thought of all that early 19th century wordiness, spellingand such?Read more

Subjects:  1. (1804-1806)    2. Audio Adult: Books On Tape    3. Audiobooks    4. Description and travel    5. History    6. Lewis and Clark Expedition    7. Unabridged Audio - History    8. United States - Colonial Period    9. West (U.S.)    10. History / General   

Reviews (3)

A useful tape/book combo for learning vocabulary and phrases
I am using the tape in my car to learn vocabulary and find the pronunciacion clear, and definitely useful as Nepali sounds are different enough from English that it is difficult to know how to read a wordcorrectly.I like to learn many words, then phrases at the beginning of mystudy of a language, and this tape has been helpful, even in it's limitednature. 4 Stars because it is good - and accurate to it's title

A useful supplement for learning Nepali
I put this tape in my car stereo and listened to it about 100 times before my trip.When I got to Nepal Ifound that I had developed an "ear" for the sound of the language (a Nepali native speakerreads the words)but was pretty weak in vocabualry and grammar.Asadvertised, the phrases are oriented towards trekking-- hiring porters,asking directions, buying supplies, things like that-- so it's not quitethe same vocabulary you need for social chit chat.However, inconjuntction with the vocabulary and grammar in the back of "NepalHandbook" by Kerry Moran, I had a good foundation for very basicconverstaions.Learning a little Nepali truly enhanced my trip since it made me stand out from the thousands of other tourists. I was glad I hadtaken the time to listen to this tapesince itdefinitelyhelped me beable topick up vocabulary faster once I was in Nepal, however, it's notquite sufficient to stand alone as the only source for learning thelanguage.

A useful supplement for learning Nepali
I put the casette on my car stereo and listened to it about 100 times before my trip.When I got to Nepal, I had developed an "ear" for the sound of the language (the tape has a Nepali native speakerpronouncing the words) but not much vocabulary or grammar.The phrases inthis book are, as promised, oriented towards trekking (asking directions,hiring porters etc..) so they are not quite what you need for socialchit-chat.However, in conjunction with the vocabulary in the back of"The Nepal Handbook" by Kerry Moran, I had a good foundation forbasic communication.I spent six weeks in Nepal and learning a little bitof language really made the trip a whole lot more fun even though you couldget along fairly well there speaking only English. I was definitely gladthat I took the time to use this language tape since it helped me pick upthe language a lot faster once I got to Nepal, but don't expect it to standalone as your only source for learning Nepali language. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Asia - Central    2. Audio Adult: Language    3. General    4. Glossaries, vocabularies, etc    5. Grammar    6. Indic & South Asian Languages - General    7. Nepali language    8. Pronounciation    9. Travel    10. Unabridged Audio - Misc.Nonfiction    11. German    12. Language self-study & phrasebooks    13. Nepali    14. Phonetics, phonology, prosody (speech)   

Features

• Unabridged

Reviews (2)

Recommended
If you live in California or plan to visit you will find this book interesting and useful. The book is very interesting and enjoyable to read.I "read" in as a book on tape which is another way to read while travelling in a car or at home in those early morning hours when you can't sleep but want to "entertain your mind".You will learn some unexpected things about California. Recommended highly! Email:boland7214@aol.

Great introduction to California
A state is much more than what you see as you travel through it.Read more

Subjects:  1. Travel    2. Unabridged Audio - History    3. United States - State & Local - West    4. United States - West - Pacific (General)   

Subjects:  1. Abridged Audio - Travel    2. Audio Adult: Other    3. Europe - Great Britain - General    4. Europe - Gt. Britain/London    5. Museums, Tours, Points of Interest    6. Travel    7. Unabridged Audio - Travel    8. England    9. London, Greater London    10. Travel & holiday guides   

Features

• Abridged

Reviews (13)

This will light the 66 flame for you
I purchased this book in it's original printing.Since then, there's been a fire inside me to travel Route 66.This book is like taking the trip.You'll feel you've actually been somewhere when you stop reading.
Route 66 rambles on
While interesting and informative, this book tends to ramble without really giving you a tight narrative of a trip on "The Mother Road". While perhaps appropriate given the disjoined nature of todays remnants of the famous road, I would like to have seen the state by state commentary accompanied by a start-then-now map of the road with the highlights/attractions indicated and located.
Route 66: The Mother Road 75th Anniversary Edition
We anticipate a trip along Route 66 and this book will be very helpful in our travels.It appears to be very informative about sites of interest along the way. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Abridged Audio - Misc. Nonfiction    2. Abridged Audio - Travel    3. Essays & Travelogues    4. United States - General   

Features

• Box set

Reviews (4)

Useful phrasebook
I found this to be a well written, detailed, and easy to use language guide. I have used a number of the Fodor language guides and travel guides over the years, as well as the ones by Lonely Planet, and I think they offer the best value for the price.
Perfect for travelers
My native German friend was my personal translator but since I knew I'd be on my own half the time, I wanted to have a grasp of essential German words and expressions. I asked around for a good German program for travelers and a coworker recommended this program which didn't disappoint! The audio was great for helping me with pronunciation. What I learned in the "finding your way" section came in very handy when I was lost and needed to ask for directions back to my friend's place. The phrasebook also came in very handy especially when it came to dining out by myself. I knew I didn't want "hasenpfeffer" (spicy rabbit stew) or "eisbein" (pickled pig's knuckle)!

Excellent
This phrasebook should see you through most encounters you are likely to have as a tourist in the German speaking world. Easy to follow and well laid out, it certainly helped me through a recent trip to Germany. Apart from a minor misunderstanding with a Stuttgart hotel clerk whom I mysteriously told "I am not normally flaccid" in response to a routine credit card inquiry, I coped marvellously. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Audio - Language    2. Audio Adult: Language    3. Europe - Germany    4. Foreign Language Study    5. German    6. Polyglot Phrasebooks    7. Unabridged Audio - Misc.Nonfiction    8. Italian    9. Language self-study & phrasebooks    10. Travel / General   

Features

• Unabridged

Reviews (10)

Well-written account of an incredible Rocky Mountain experience!
I bought this book while visiting Estes Park, CO...hungry for books about life in the West that may not be so readily available here in NJ.I found it to be one of the most enjoyable books I have ever read!Isabella's descriptions of the Rocky Mountains and the climate through which she travelled are vivid and gripping.But more than that, she gives a detailed and honest account of what life was like for settlers on the frontier.How she managed to ride thru the mountains where the only "trails" were tracks of wagons or animals, when often those were covered with the seemingly constant snow, boggles the mind.Her love for Colorado sings out in every word she writes.I too was deeply touched by its beauty, and hope to return again, this time with an enriched appreciation due to this wonderful recounting of Isabella Bird's journey.

Don't overlook this
For many years I saw this book in National Park bookstores and passed it by thinking it would be an example of the overwritten, rather tedious journals of other Victorian travelers.When I finally found it at a used bookstore and rather reluctantly bought it, I was surprised to find out how exciting and relevant her story was.
Free Bird
Did you ever read any of the BEANY MALONE novels by Lenora Mattingly Weber?In them I first read about Isabella Bird and her remarkable life in the American West.Beany's older brother, Johnny Malone, is a teenager when the series begins, a young Denver boy with a remarkable passion for unearthing the memoirs and daguerrotypes of Colorado pioneers and taking notes on the old-timers who settled the state.Their colorful lives make his ordinary life seem rather pastel, so he often sinks into a nostalgia of the past, while his family members tease him about the dreamy look in his eyes.He helps a veteran journalist, Emerson Worth, complete his magnum opus, OUR CITY HAS DEEP ROOTS.And among the pioneers Johnny obsessed about was none other than Isabella Bird, so when I found this book on a recent trip to Boulder, I added it to my rucksack.
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Subjects:  1. Biography & Autobiography    2. Biography/Autobiography    3. Unabridged Audio - Travel    4. United States - West - General    5. Women   

Features

• Audiobook
• Student Edition

Subjects:  1. Business English    2. English as a Second Language    3. English language    4. Foreign Language Study    5. Language    6. Self-instruction    7. Sound recordings for foreign speakers    8. Spoken English    9. Unabridged Audio - Misc.Nonfiction    10. ELT audio-visual (video & audio cassettes)    11. ELT: English for business    12. ELT: English for travel & communications    13. English    14. Foreign Language Study / English as a Second Language   

Reviews (8)

Outstanding guide.
Excellent
I was fortunate enough to stumble upon a much earlier edition of this wonderful little guide to the Paris these authors obviously love.The distaff side of the Landes clan has a keen eye for detail and a sharp nose for the unexpected tidbits that make visiting any city a delight.
Don't walk Paris without it!
This is a terrific "off the beaten path" type tour guide. These tours take you to areas that other tourists just pass through on their way to the Eifel Tower and Louvre. With this book you experience the real Paris, not the tourist's Paris. Read more

Subjects:  1. Abridged Audio - Travel    2. Audio Adult: Other    3. Europe - France    4. Travel    5. Unabridged Audio - Travel    6. France    7. Travel & holiday guides   

Features

• Abridged
• Audiobook

Reviews (7)

Great Read
I enjoyed this book.I remember seeing his show in the last few years it was on.The stories about the show are very inspiring.

Charles Was One of KInd!!
I once heard Dan Rather on TV talking about his late friend Charles.He admired his uncanny ability to describe everyday experiences of common Americans and make them stand out in a positive way.Rather talked about how Charles went against the grain of network television, when networks were consciously "dumbing down,"Charles was trying to appeal to Americans who had read at least one book per month.He had faith in the intellectual capacity of citizens and their ability to help democracy.
316 Pages of America
This 316 pages of America isn't the America of the media or of Hollywood or of the headlines of shootings and money-grubbing, cheating and robbing, but of the REAL America. Of honest people and real places, of pride and honor and values that really count.Read more

Subjects:  1. 1971-    2. Abridged Audio - Autobiography/Biography    3. Audio - Autobiography / Biography    4. Audio Adult: Books On Tape    5. Audiobooks    6. Biography    7. Entertainment & Performing Arts - Television Personalities    8. Social life and customs    9. Television journalists    10. United States    11. United States - General    12. Biography & Autobiography    13. Travel / General   

Features

• Audiobook
• Unabridged

Reviews (7)

gonzo travel writing
I enjoyed the volumes before and after this one immensely, and only bought this one with reluctance.I was correct in my misgivings.
Some great ones.
What is there to add here? It's the best from last year. Some of the essays were about things I didn't care about, like a tedious thing on wine, but I just skipped those. The ones I was into, I was really into.

If you like Paul Theroux's books, you'll like this book
I like travel literature, and I've enjoyed Paul Theroux's books, so I thought I'd try this book. I read the 2000 version of Best American Travel literature, which really reflects Bill Bryson's writing style. And true to my expectations, this version reflects Paul Theroux's style. The articles are more political, more edgy, more depressing, just like Theroux. It's superb writing though, while not always light, so you should expect to take on some of the more 'heady' travel topics in this volume. Theroux really has stuck to his own style in choosing the stories that make up this book. A really good set of stories though. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Audio: Juvenile    2. Audiobooks    3. Composition & Creative Writing - Academic    4. Essays & Travelogues    5. General    6. Travel    7. Travelers' writings, American    8. Unabridged Audio - Travel    9. Voyages and travels    10. Travel / Essays & Travelogues   

Subjects:  1. Audio - Language    2. Audio Adult: Language    3. Foreign Language Study    4. Linguistics    5. Polish    6. Polish language    7. Self-instruction    8. Sound recordings for English speakers    9. Spoken Polish    10. Subjects & Themes - Travel - General    11. Poland   

Reviews (1)

Was a Huge Help on my trip!
I listened to the tape 3 times on the plane on the way over to Venice (the tape also has a little pamphlet to read along in the cassette case). When I got off the plane I was able to ask all the questions necessary to get around. People understood me and were very kind. I took the train to Sicily where I was in a car for 20 hours with 5 women, only 1 of whom spoke a little English. With gestures, the book and what I remembered from the tape, I had a great time. Towards the end of my stay I listened to the tape again and it helped me even more. When I needed to take care of something important, the necessary information was in the reference book. It will not help you get into too much detail with the natives, but it will help you handle the essentials and get around beautifully. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Audio Adult: Language    2. Europe - Italy    3. Italian    4. Polyglot Phrasebooks    5. Unabridged Audio - Misc.Nonfiction   

Editorial Review

Take a trip to last century's Alaska through Muir's clean, easy-going, enthusiastic prose. He wrote the way he took pictures, with insight, attention, care and genuine feeling. It's a lovely look into a beautiful land and its inhabitants the way it used to be, told in a flowing narrative that is far less rushed than contemporary travel tales. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Don't know what to make of this
From the title, one would think this a type of travel journal, a panorama of episodes along the way, a sequence of stations between the starting off point and the destination. Instead, the overall weight of the book is given to glaciers, their descriptions, their influence on the landscape, their geological record, the discovery of new glaciers, and other characteristics of these moving rivers of ice. While Muir offers descriptive powers unequaled among authors on nature, never repeating himself though constantly repeating his subject, the sheer repetition tends to bog the work down. Two whole pages might contribute to our view of a particular glacier, and suddenly Muir reports that he's finished a 200-mile leg of his journey on foot. He tells us when he's climbed a glacier, and along the way we've missed an entire week. Time and space almost have no medium in this publication, utterly lost when gazing upon a glacier. For nature lovers who will never go to Alaska, the descriptions in this book make the ranges and glaciers come alive in print, but as a dramatic journey, a travelogue, or a field manual for the Alaskan bush, this book forms only a vague shadow.

Muir in southeast Alaska.
I confess up front, it's been a few years since I read Muir's Travels in Alaska. Yet significant aspects I remember well. Given Muir's exuberance for life and almost everything he encounters in his travels, one almost looses view of Muir the botanist and geologist. But not quite. Here we find the author contemplating the activity of glaciers and documenting the flora of southeast Alaska. Muir (who tended strongly toward vegetarianism) gleefully entertaining himself by foiling duck hunters. Baffling the locals by happily wandering out into major storms. The Literary Side of Science
Nature is a beautiful and highly complicated phenomena of this world.Many have sought to understand it and capture its essence in writing.The nature writings of John Muir succeed in capturing the beauty of nature as well as the scientific aspect.I have to be honest, I wasn't that enthused about reading a book about science.I expected Muir's book to be identical to a science textbook, definitely not my idea of enjoyment.However, his book was actually full of detailed descriptions and creative uses of similes, metaphors, and analogies.In fact, it completely changed my perception of a scientific novel.Read more

Subjects:  1. Audio Adult: Books On Tape    2. Essays & Travelogues    3. Unabridged Audio - Misc.Nonfiction    4. United States - Pacific - Alaska