Dry Storeroom No. 1: The Secret Life of the Natural History Museum
by Richard Fortey
from Knopf
Richard Fortey—one of the world’s most gifted natural scientists and acclaimed author of Life, Trilobite and Earth—describes this splendid new book as a museum of the mind. But it is, as well, a perfect behind-the-scenes guide to a legendary place. Within its pages, London’s Natural History Museum, a home of treasures—plants from the voyage of Captain Cook, barnacles to which Charles Darwin devoted years of study, hidden accursed jewels—pulses with life and miraculous surprises. In an elegant and illuminating narrative, Fortey acquaints the reader with the extraordinary people, meticulous research and driving passions that helped to create the timeless experiences of wonder that fill the museum. And with the museum’s hallways and collection rooms providing a dazzling framework, Fortey offers an often eye-opening social history of the scientific accomplishments of the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Fortey’s scholarship dances with wit. Here is a book that is utterly entertaining from its first page to its last.
Birnbaum's Walt Disney World 2008 (Birnbaum's Walt Disney World)
by Birnbaum Travel Guides
from Disney Editions
Birnbaum's Walt Disney World, the most respected and well-known name in travel guides, takes readers to the world's most popular tourist attraction. Since ours is the only guidebook that's official, this book includes the most accurate information on prices, changes, and new attractions for 2008. Highlights include the scoop on "Magical Beginnings," Walt Disney World's specially tailored, money-saving vacation plan for families with pre-schoolers, and updates on Pleasure Island's new venues, eateries, and shopping opportunities.
This new edition also includes info on the Magic Kingdom's Pirate and Princess parties-the park's new special-ticket interactive family adventures, complete with fireworks. We've also got more money-saving tips than ever before! Other updates include all the insider info about stage shows, parades, and nighttime spectaculars, prices and ticket options, customized travel tips for teenagers, international travelers, guests with disabilities, and a comprehensive character meal chart to help guests pick their favorite dining spots.
The Complete Guide to Walt Disney World 2008 (Complete Guide to Walt Disney World)
by Julie Neal
from Coconut Press
Should leave fans of Mickey smiling from ear to ear. -- Chicago Tribune
A thorough overview, with inside tips, facts and quizzes. With more than 400 color photos, it also makes a nice souvenir. -- Boston Globe
May be the most colorful, visually stunning and deeply researched guidebook on the market. A warm, loving portrait of Disney World, for people who want to love Disney World. -- Orlando Sentinel
Endless tips and trivia. -- Knoxville News-Sentinel
There are dozens of guides to Disney World, but I like this one by a husband-and-wife team who visited Disney World more than 700 times. They're not affiliated with Disney, but received much inside access by the company to provide very detailed descriptions of each ride, show and attraction. Among the gems are fun facts, suggested itineraries and little things to look for. -- Florida Times Union
Offers an in-depth history of the attractions and the parks themselves... and the most in-depth run-down of the two Disney water parks. -- Budget Travel
Book Description
The best-looking Disney World guidebook, The Complete Guide to Walt Disney World 2008 is also the most interesting. Its spectacular photography grabs your eye, then its fantastic wealth of information keeps you glued to its pages. Every aspect of Disney World becomes easy to understand, as color-coded chapters lay out everything one subject at a time, and gorgeous full-color images bring it all to life. Packed with details you just can't find anywhere else, every chapter is so helpful you'll find yourself sticking post-it notes everywhere.
The Planning Your Trip chapter offers a seven-step process to organizing your vacation, then a gold mine of practical information. As for theme parks, each ride or show gets its own article, many of which run several pages. Water parks are covered the same way, which makes the book the only real guide to Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon. Even diversions such as parasailing, stock-car driving and surfing lessons are fully described and illustrated.
A new restaurant chapter is a collection of 88 reviews. The accounts are descriptive and honest, and include useful details such as which character meals can usually take walk-ins. The accommodations chapter covers each Disney resort with a photo-packed article as well as a comprehensive At a Glance sidebar. The combination gives you a nice overview of each complex, but also makes it easy to scan them all by price, amenities, location, or other criteria.
Supplemental Material
Like the most complete DVD set, the book is packed with bonus features. The best are the background articles on Disney's theme park attractions. For example, three side stories describe the history, science and set design of The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. Other columns cover the histories of Space Mountain and It's a Small World. An animal guide describes the odd behaviors you can witness at Animal Kingdom, from the forearm-licking of the park's kangaroos to the stick-sharing rituals of its exotic birds. Breezy feature articles cover the wacky histories of the Beauty and the Beast and Cinderella fairy tales.
The result is a hugely entertaining book, but one that doesn't flinch from the frustrating realities of a Disney trip. It acknowledges the long lines, the challenge of getting key restaurant reservations, the cluelessness you have on how to get a front-row seat to the High School Musical street show... and provides the magical solutions. Tip bars run across the bottom of most pages.
Fitting the visual beauty of its subject, The Complete Guide to Walt Disney World 2008 is printed on gloss paper in full color. The book is fully updated, with the latest park and resort information and current prices and policies.
The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World 2008 (Unofficial Guides)
by Bob Sehlinger
from Wiley
From the publishers of The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World
"A Tourist's Best Friend!"
—Chicago Sun-Times
"Indispensable"
—The New York Times
Five Great Features and Benefits offered ONLY by The Unofficial Guide:
- Exclusively patented, field-tested touring plans that save as much as four hours of standing in line in a single day
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Tips, advice, and opinions from hundreds of Walt Disney World guests in their own words
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Almost 250 hotels rated and ranked for quality and value, including the top non-Disney hotels for families
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A complete Dining Guide with ratings and reviews of all Walt Disney World restaurants, plus extensive alternatives for dining deals outside the World
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Every attraction rated and ranked for each age group; extensive, objective, head-to-head comparisons of the Disney and Universal theme parks
Fodor's Walt Disney World® with Kids 2009: with Universal Orlando and SeaWorld (Special-Interest Titles)
by Kim Wright Wiley
from Fodor's
Entering its 20th edition, Fodor’s Walt Disney World® with Kids delivers the definitive but always-easy-to-access advice of former Disney Magazine contributing editor Kim Wright Wiley, who has logged more than 50 visits to the parks both as a keen-eyed journalist and as a parent. Every family needs her tips and insider knowledge to make the most of a trip to Walt Disney World.
Wiley not only rates attractions and rides based on their age-related suitability and "scare" factor, but also incorporates feedback from hundreds of families who, like her, have not-so-tirelessly field tested it all. Inside you'll find:
Ø Everything a family needs to choose the right hotel, including driving times to the parks from each property
Ø Full ratings as well as quick-reference charts for the most kid-pleasing rides and restaurants
Ø Must-see attraction checklists geared toward young kids as well as preteens and teens
Ø Time-saving tips, such as how to avoid crowds and lines at the park
Ø Insider's secrets and the skinny on "Hidden Mickeys"
Ø Cautionary tales and success stories from parents about their park experiences
Ø Convenient maps of Walt Disney World and Universal Studios
"Must reading for everyone planning to bring their family."–Katie Couric, NBC's Today Show
101 Baseball Places to See Before You Strike Out
by Josh Pahigian
from The Lyons Press
Church Signs Across America
by Steve Paulson
from Overlook Hardcover
Church Signs Across America celebrates the wit, charm, and verse of church signs from every state in the U.S. At the same time reverent and witty, these signs offer fascinating glimpses into American life that are variously humorous, inspirational, kitschy, and kind—and occasionally all those things at once. After finding their inspiration for the book during a road trip from Florida to Alaska, husband and wife team Steve and Pam Paulson traveled to every corner of the country photographing the signs of churches large and small, and of every denomination.
Among the gems uncovered over the course of the journey are puns, "Seven days without prayer makes one weak"; admonishments, "The Ten Commandments are not multiple choice"; family advice, "Families are like fudge . . . mostly sweet with a few nuts"; and sales pitches, "Looking for a lifeguard? Ours walks on water."
Church Signs Across America includes photographs of American churches both imposing and humble, and it is as remarkable for its display of the diversity of American church architecture as it is for the variety of humor and inspiration displayed in the signs. Appealing to both churchgoers and drive-by appreciators of this uniquely American form of wit and wisdom, this inimitable book is sure to become an uplifting and amusing classic—a laugh from the belly as well as from the heart.
Assassination Vacation
by Sarah Vowell
from Simon & Schuster
Sarah Vowell exposes the glorious conundrums of American history and culture with wit, probity, and an irreverent sense of humor. With Assassination Vacation, she takes us on a road trip like no other -- a journey to the pit stops of American political murder and through the myriad ways they have been used for fun and profit, for political and cultural advantage.
From Buffalo to Alaska, Washington to the Dry Tortugas, Vowell visits locations immortalized and influenced by the spilling of politically important blood, reporting as she goes with her trademark blend of wisecracking humor, remarkable honesty, and thought-provoking criticism. We learn about the jinx that was Robert Todd Lincoln (present at the assassinations of Presidents Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley) and witness the politicking that went into the making of the Lincoln Memorial. The resulting narrative is much more than an entertaining and informative travelogue -- it is the disturbing and fascinating story of how American death has been manipulated by popular culture, including literature, architecture, sculpture, and -- the author's favorite -- historical tourism. Though the themes of loss and violence are explored and we make detours to see how the Republican Party became the Republican Party, there are all kinds of lighter diversions along the way into the lives of the three presidents and their assassins, including mummies, show tunes, mean-spirited totem poles, and a nineteenth-century biblical sex cult.
Eyewitness Top 10 Travel Guide to Venice (Eyewitness Travel Top 10)
by DK Publishing
from DK Travel
Rick Steves' Best of Europe 2008 (Rick Steves)
by Rick Steves
from Avalon Travel Publishing
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