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Chapters: Shopping Malls in Monterrey, Sports Venues in Monterrey, Monterrey Arena, Puente de La Unidad, Faro Del Comercio, Fundidora Park, Basilica of Guadalupe, Monterrey, Estadio Universitario, Monterrey México Temple, Estadio Tecnológico, Mirador Del Obispado, Santa Lucía Riverwalk, Estadio de Fútbol Monterrey, Plaza Fiesta San Agustín, Auditorio Coca-Cola, Estadio de Beisbol Monterrey, Paseo San Pedro, Consulate General of Canada in Monterrey, Galerías Valle Oriente, El Puente Del Papa, Palacio de Gobierno, Plaza San Pedro, Palacio Del Obispado, Oficinas En El Parque Torre 2, Galerías Monterrey. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 62. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt:The Auditorio Coca-Cola is an outdoor amphitheater located in Fundidora Park in Monterrey , Mexico . It is considered one of the most important venues of Mexico and has played host to large national and international events. However, since the opening of Arena Monterrey , it has been used infrequently.Notable performers Websites (URLs online) A hyperlinked version of this chapter is at Basilica of Guadalupe (south side).Temple Interior. The National Flag hangs under the image, as in Mexico City.The Basilica of Guadalupe or Santuario de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe , is a Roman Catholic church located in the metropolitan area of Monterrey , Nuevo León , Mexico . Lying in the neighborhood of Colonia Independencia, just outside of the city's downtown area, the temple is one of the larger Church edifices in northern Mexico. It is dedicated to Virgin Mary in her guise as Our Lady of Guadalupe , the Patroness of America, who appeared to St Juan Diego on Tepeyac Hill outside Mexico City in 1531.It's volume is smaller than its counterpart, the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, which without a doubt enjoys a larger national and international not... ... Read more

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Welcome, a traveler's guide to New Orleans. shopping, dining, entertainment, sports, sightseeing, all about the city. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from New Hampshire Business Review, published by Business Publications, Inc. on December 5, 2008. The length of the article is 804 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Retailers hope for a shopping lift: state's merchants sport a cautious holiday outlook.(RETAIL)(Report)
Author: Kathleen Callahan
Publication: New Hampshire Business Review (Magazine/Journal)
Date: December 5, 2008
Publisher: Business Publications, Inc.
Volume: 30Issue: 26Page: 11(1)

Article Type: Report

Distributed by Gale, a part of Cengage Learning ... Read more

Product Description
More than 100 product reports in 12 categories, including bottom paints, hull/deck coatings, varnishes, adhesives and sealants, cleaners, refrigerants, and others. Each product report includes five ratings (disposabililty; flammability; health; ozone depletion; reactivity), a combined rating, a brief narrative, and special notes. Each category gets an introductory essay describing recent and future developments and, in qualitative terms, the relative effectiveness of competing product formulations. However, the book will not be the boatowner's primary source of information on effectiveness. ... Read more

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The last decade has witnessed a clear and steady rise of interest in consumer culture. Many commentators now argue that consumption rather than production is the axis of personal identity and meaningful social action. The situation reverses the traditional view that consumption is an incidental, trivial feature in contemporary culture.

This shrewd and probing book seeks to theorize shopping as an autonomous realm. It aims to avoid the reductionism characteristics of economics and marketing. At the same time it aims to avoid the moralizing tone of many contemporary discussions of shopping and consumption. The book uses an interdisciplinary resource base and comparative data to build-up a convincing analysis of the meaning of shopping today. The book includes chapters by Mary Douglas on the importance of shopping; Daniel Miller on the cultural and theoretical significance of shopping; Mica Nava on women, the city and the department store; Rachel Bowlby on supermarket futures; Cecilia Fredriksson on the cultural construction of shopping; Turo-Kimmo Lehtonen and Pasi M[um]aenp[um]a[um]a on the ethnography of shopping; Colin Campbell on shopping, pleasure and the sex war; and Pasi Falk on the `scopic' regimes of shopping. The book also contains an appendix which gives a brief history and selected literature of shopping.

The book provides the first comprehensive overview of the modern phenomenon of shopping. As such it should be essential reading for students and researchers working in the fields of sociology, cultural studies and anthropology.

Product Description
From shoe lovers to bargain hunters, underwear fanatics to nail varnish addicts, collectors of cosmetics to online shopaholics, women know no bounds when it comes to retail therapy. Shoes and Shopping profiles over 35 women and lays bare their shopping habits in this fascinating and lighthearted new book. The thrill of bringing home those bulging boxes and bags and the buzz that comes from finding that perfect little something is all detailed here. Jo Hemmings looks at why women love to shop and examines just what it is about shopping that makes it so alluring. Each revealing interview is accompanied by a colour photograph of the subject surrounded by a collection of all of her favourite fashion items. A must-buy for all shopaholics! ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Business North Carolina, published by Thomson Gale on March 1, 2006. The length of the article is 1098 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Scrumtious: retailer gets into another gear.(SPORTS SECTION)
Author: Chris Roush
Publication: Business North Carolina (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 1, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 26Issue: 3Page: 28(3)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Ralph and Capt. Muff.
I lived next door, and went to High School with Ralph.
This is a fact filled book that will be a great aid to the novice boater and those with expirence in boating.

Yes I do remember Capt Muff.

Jessica
... Read more

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Authors: Tae-Wook Cha, Chuihua Judy Chung, Jutiki Gunter, Dan Herman, Hiromi Hosoya, Jeffrey Inaba, Rem Koolhaas, Sze Tsung Leong, Kiwa Matsushita, John McMorrough, Juan Palop-Casado, Markus Schaefer, Tran Vinh, Srdjan Jovanovich Weiss, Louise Wyman Design: Sze Tsung Leong and Chuihua Judy Chung

Book Description:Harvard Graduate School of Design's independent study seminar Project on the City aims at identifying and analyzing problems leading to and resulting from accelerated urbanization, as well as developing new philosophies to help our increasingly metropolitan planet cope with such rapid change. Taking the roles of both architect and sociologist, thesis advisor Koolhaas and his students travel and research in the first phase of each cycle, and write their theses in the second. The result of each project is a comprehensive, specialized study of the effects of modernization on the contemporary city.

During the years 1997 and 1998, Harvard's design graduates concentrated their studies on the phenomenon of shopping as a primary mode of urban life. As Sze Tsung Leong writes, "Not only is shopping melting into everything, but everything is melting into shopping." Shopping is an integral part of urbanization - as shopping environments have indeed become the defining elements of the modern city. Research for this project, targeting Asia, Europe, and the United States, focused on marketing strategies, retail technologies, and the hybridization of cultural/recreational environments and the retail arena. Including essays ranging from "Disney Realism: Constructing the Copyrighted Environment" to "Three-Ring Circus: Shopping vs. Architecture," as well as hundreds of diagrams, floor plans, and photographs, The Harvard Design School Guide to Shopping explores in-depth the ways in which shopping has refashioned the urban institution.

About the Authors:Chuihua Judy Chung is principal of Content Design Architecture Group in New York. With Sze Tsung Leong, she has assembled The Charged Void: Architecture, the complete architectural works of Alison and Peter Smithson. She is currently editing "Owning a House in the City", a study on low-income housing in the US.

Jeffrey Inaba, a partner of AMO (Architecture Media Organization) is writing a book on the work of Gordon Bunshaft and Kevin Roche.

Rem Koolhaas is principal of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture, Rotterdam, and the author of Delirious New York and the groundbreaking S,M,L,XL.

Sze Tsung Leong is principal of Content Design Architecture Group in New York, whose current projects range from residential design to graphic and environmental materials for human rights organizations. Sze Tsung Leong is the author and co-editor of Slow Space (Monacelli, 1998).Amazon.com Review
Like a favorite shopping emporium, The Harvard Design School Guide to Shopping is a browser's paradise. This second installment of the Project on the City aims to investigate "a general urban condition undergoing virulent change." A big brick of a book with hundreds of photos and a bundle of essays by prominent designers, architects, and urban scholars, it traces the evolution of the marketplace and the environments we create for the purpose of getting and spending. From the great covered arcades of the 19th century to the museum displays of grand department stores to air-conditioned suburban malls, the book examines the ecology and life cycles of retail space the world over. Dip into the book anywhere for insights into acquisitive behavior. Newspaper clippings cite retail trends; a bar chart compares retail square footage by country (the U.S. tops them all). Some of the essays are already marked in yellow highlighter so you can scan for the main points. A 2,000-year timeline tracks major developments with theme concepts: Disney Space, Three-Ring Circus, Brand Zones, Shopping Landscapes. The book makes a wonderful reference for urban planners, but it's equally accessible to those who just want to shop 'til they drop. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

good trade
no problems, I live in chile and i receipt my books in less than two months, maybe they could improve the bundle (the plastic).
Serious.
thats all

Latest Design Accessory for the Bubble Economy
For a volume that purports to be scholarly research from Harvard University, it incorporates preciously little hard facts or empirical data from the commercial retail industry, aside from the colorful graphics, it represents, at best, an amateurish take on a global economy in the form of bumper stickers rather than any form of serious analysis.

Mr. Koolhaas' customary "Firehose" approach to editing - massive amount of unedited images and unaccredited charts and information featuring slogans sufficiently amorphous as to allow readers to draw whatever conclusion they want. Harvard GSD (Graduate School of Design) students would tell you that the whole book is a somewhat cynical exercise for Mr. Koolhaas to use his academic assistants to produce "research" that attempted to justify intellectually what he was designing for the Prada stores in NY, LA, etc. (a "cash cow" for Koolhaas' architectural firm according to his chief assistant) But since Koolhaas is an established and bankable star, none of the participants are complaining. In the end, most of the essays managed to emphasize an approach to architecture that happened to coincide with projects by Mr. Koolhaas.

For example, while the essay "Depato" give a reasonably detail account of the development of Japanese department stores in the Shibuya district of Tokyo, but then it focused on design features such as the "Bunkamura" or cultural village, art galleries and roof gardens that some stores had added in order to attract customers to shore up declining business. (Koolhaas advocated adding lecture hall in Prada stores but was vetoed for taking up too much valuable retail space). The essay never examined, let alone proposed solutions to, the real cause behind the decline of department store sales - the rise of discount shopping during the decade-long economic recession).

"Captive-Airmall" amiably speculates on the pros and cons of spaces designed for efficiency and what it meant to operate in an highly impersonal environment. However, it failed to mention the real reason that gave rise to such environment - airline de-regulation that began in the United States which eventually turned airports into corporations responsible for generating their own revenues and thus jump-started the airport retail business.

Much like a fashion product by Prada, this book is very useful if you want to brag about how intellectually curious and, at the same time, up-to-the-minute-Wallpaper-hip you are at home or the office - it's the latest design accessory for the 1990s bubble economy. It is disappointing to see that even a respectable institution such as Harvard has succumbed to the forces of the marketplace.

The language of retail
I'll start with the bad first: this book is too long, the essays are of uneven quality, and the layout is poor (if you are trying to read it, that is, and not just look at it).That being said, I think the overall product is excellent.This authors do not seek to answer questions but, instead, to raise them.Why is retail facing a crisis?How will advances in IT affect retail?What is changing about how we buy, what we buy, and why we buy?

The authors' premise is that shopping is a living entity, one with survival on its mind.Retail, they claim, has evolved as other beings have evolved: Some advances are foreseen while others come through chance, but all advances are in response to external forces.In the case of retail, the dominant relationship is between the shop and the shopper.As the shopper changes, so must the shop evolve, write the authors.

That this work is not a completed whole, but rather a piece where some assembly is required by the reader, is important in making this book work.The authors do not and cannot answer all their questions.The idea of "ulterior motives" - which teases at the implications of increased use of IT in retail and urban planning - is, to me, the central issue.The authors note the shift from "how does spacial design affect people" to "how does information design affect people".They note the importance of this shift for the future of shopping and present a history of retail as the vocabulary for which readers can begin to discuss these questions.

Because the authors have taken on the task of teaching the language of retail, readers may feel as if they are back in grade school English class - slogging through page after page of seemingly useless information that is not neccessarily connected to the next bit of information.However, if you spend some time playing with this information - looking at eachbit of knowledge as building blocks that can be moved about and repositioned next to other bits of knowledge to uncover new and different patterns - this book comes alive.

A virtual shopping spree
Having leafed through this book and "Great Leap Forward," I find myself bemused as to what all the fuss is about.Koolhaas is apparently oh so cool! according to a recent Newsweek. There is little that is new here unless one considers placing an escalator inside Le Corbusier's Dom-ino skeleton novel.It seems that Koolhaas and his chums have once again had great fun cutting and pasting from the past and present, to create a virtual tour through their cluttered minds of consumerist fantasies.

excessive as ussual
It arrived just when i was needing it. Malls, shopping, consumerism, no-spaces, junk-spaces, the artificial-scape...finnaly Venturi&Brown met Koolhaas..(as i already suggested) but, despite all these, i still find it hard to pay such a thrilling money just because they didn't take the work of selecting the material. It seems to me lately that information grows endlessly and nobody is paying care to the "old customed" thing of selecting, choosing what's really important. IF THE BOOK WERE HALF ITS SIZE IT WOULD BE WORTH. As it is not, i must blame the authors for their happy "cut and paste and get the money" editorial strategy. I'm sad to say that i had to read it all and swallow even the most unmature essays to get to this conclusion. I suggest a combined reading of it with "No Logo" to get to an ecstasyc state of annoyment and claustrophobia. ... Read more

Product Description
Launched in 2004, the Art/Shop/Eat pocket guides combine a great contemporary look with the thoroughness of research expected from a Blue Guide publication, making them the perfect choice for the weekend or short-break tourist or business visitor.

• Selective high-quality coverage of the leading museums and galleries
• Where to see the best art
• Great eateries from regional cuisine to innovative new trends with places for all budgets
• The high art of shopping, with the stores you simply cannot miss ... Read more

Product Description
Art on the brain? Plan your visits to the world's great cities with Art/Shop/Eat. The best museum and gallery districts mapped out for the busy traveler—with tips on the hottest dining and most fashionable shopping for the perfect day in town. In a handy format with full color maps, these are terrific guides for discovering the finest that each of these cities has to offer.

Take in the glories of the Villa Borghese • stroll down the hill to eat at Mirabelle de l'Hotel Spendide Royal • visit the via Condotti for the finest shopping in town. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The only guide book I used in Rome.
We brought several guide books with us on our recent trip to Rome, including this one, and my husband and I pretty much fought over which one of us got to look at "Art Shop Eat."Neither of us wanted to bother with the other guide books or maps.I think the problem Mr. McHenry encountered with the 2005 edition -- failure to identify locations of attractions on maps -- has been brilliantly solved: the book now contains small, highly detailed maps of each of five neighborhoods that attract tourists.These maps were HUGELY helpful to us: Rome contains many, many teeny little vicoli, which are basically narrow pedestrian alleys that are too small to show up on any but the most detailed maps.The Art Shop Eat neighborhood-specific maps were the only maps we had that were detailed enough to give us the information we often needed to navigate these litle alleys; all our other maps identified only larger streets that accomodate vehicular traffic.

Art Shop Eat was also the only guidebook that was really worth its weight.Art Shop Eat is teensy, and very lightweight, and you never get tired of lugging it around all day the way you get tired of lugging, say, an Eyewitness Guide all day long.

I think of traveling in a gorgeous city like Rome as being analogous to backpacking: you are going to be walking over new territory all day long.You need really great shoes and socks, a really, really great map, and you really need to keep your load as light as possible.You won't be aware of how much better the Art Shop Eat maps are than the others in the bookstore, nor will you be aware of how important its lightness is, but believe me, I've compared this guidebook with the others out there and it was really worth its weight in my bag.(I would, however, recommend that you also bring at least one larger laminated map of the entire city; you also need to see the neighborhoods in relation to each other, as well as where you are in each neighborhood.This map will also be worth its [negligible] weight.)

I also found the neighborhood-specific arrangement of Art Shop Eat to be the easiest to use of all our guidebooks.I can't overstate how glad we were to have Art Shop Eat with us in Rome.(I also think that Mr. McHenry's other problem -- an overemphasis on art -- has been corrected; the edition I used in December, 2008 had plenty of information aboutattractions other than museums.)

Could easily be a 4
This travel guide is aimed straight at art lovers.Emphasis is on description of art museums and galleries, with a brief note on the other major attractions, with a secondary speciality in shopping and eating opportunities.For instance the book spends almost 11 full pages on the Gallery Borghese (only 1/2 of one page is a photograph) detailing the art that is in each room on each floor.For people who are mainly interested in seeing art museums this is a great book.
Small, easy to carry, would fit in a man's back pocket, with a 10 page art glossary in the back. The huge problem with this book is site location:If the book tells you to buy your art supplies at Poggi on Via del Gesu, you have no idea where the street is, they don't locate it on a map for you, there is no street index.You cannot find what the book is recommending by using this book. Under shopping is the listing "Chez Garage, on Via Pinciana #53, A wonderful luxury bazaar with multi-ethnic clothes, shoes, and objects."Wow, sounds kinda cool, wonder where it is?Who knows!You'll never find it using this book.It is as if the people who put the book together never tried to use it.
Thisis the first edition, hopefully they will wake up and correct this huge blunder in the future editions. ... Read more

Product Description
Launched in 2004, the Art/Shop/Eat pocket guides combine a great contemporary look with the thoroughness of research expected from a Blue Guide publication, making them the perfect choice for the weekend or short-break tourist or business visitor.

• Selective high-quality coverage of the leading museums and galleries
• Where to see the best art
• Great eateries from regional cuisine to innovative new trends with places for all budgets
• The high art of shopping, with the stores you simply cannot miss ... Read more

Product Description
"Put One Of The World's Greatest Cities At Your Fingertips: Whether you and your family are long-time Chicago residents, newcomers, or visitors, Chicago magazine's newly-updated Guide to Chicago 1989 puts one of the great cities at your fingertips. Here is your map for enjoying Chicago's cultural treasures, with detailed descriptions of places and activities to suit every taste: * Museums * Theaters and theater groups * Choral groups, Orchestras, Opera Companies * Professional Sports Teams, Amateur Sports * Art Galleries * Dance Groups * Parks * Annual Events. Explore the cities within the city --- each neighborhood's history and current atmosphere --- and take informed look at notable architecture, shopping, dining, and nightlife. Chapters include: * The Loop * Boul Mich/River North * Gold Coast/Old Town * Lincoln Park * Uptown/Edgewater * Rogers Park * Evanston * Chinatown * Hyde Park/Kenwood * Pullman * Bridgeport/Canaryville * South Shore * Back Of The Yards * Oak Park. Produced by Chicago Magazine, the city's monthly authority on arts and entertainment, the Guide is an essential reference to Chicago's most popular and important attractions." (from back cover) ... Read more

Product Description
Art on the brain? Plan your visits to the world's great cities with Art/Shop/Eat. The best museum and gallery districts mapped out for the busy traveler—with tips on the hottest dining and most fashionable shopping for the perfect day in town. In a handy format with full color maps, these are terrific guides for discovering the finest that each of these cities has to offer.

Peruse the masterpieces at the National Gallery • delight in the fabulous designs at Agent Provocateur • eat the freshest offered by Alisair Little in fashionable Soho. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Museums in depth, plus a surprisingly useful general guide
This is a small book, chock full of information for the London visitor who expects to spend a lot of time at the major museums. While most travel books devote a few pages (at most) for a museum, this one spends 22 pages on the National Gallery alone.

In addition to the mundane details, such as opening hours, charges, and tube station -- which are a lot less mundane when you're in need of that data! -- the museum listings show you the highlights (i.e. the art you'll want to see if you're on a mad rush), plenty of maps, and a wing-by-wing guide. For example, for rooms 52-53 of the National Gallery, it says (in part), "The paintings in this room and the next were made before 1400, and show how the rather static, frontal style we recognize from Byzantine icons gradually incorporated greater realism, through the influence of Giotto." And then it tells you a bit about the paintings (or whatever) you're looking at. I'm not sure this is better than a live guide, but it's sure an improvement from wandering around the place, feeling as though I'm supposed to be impressed but unsure why.

The book gives detailed information about these museums: National Gallery, Courtauld Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, British Museum, Wallace Collection, Sir John Sloane's Museum, Tate Modern, Saatchi Gallery, Tate Britian, Queen's Gallery, and the Victoria and Albert Museum. Each is grouped by neighborhood, so you can plan your day at Westminster or South Kensington, etc.

If that's all it did, it might be worth the modest price... assuming you're doing a trip devoted to museums. But if, like me, you'll spend only a bit of time in the museums,buying (and lugging along) a book solely on that subject might seem silly.

However, that's where I was pleasantly surprised. Art/Shop/Eat London really does live up to the Shop/Eat part of the equation. For each neighbhorhood, the book includes a section called "On Route," which lists commercial galleries as well as other, and smaller attractions (such as the London Transport Museum or the Photographer's Gallery). You'll also find a list of shopping destinations in the surrounding area, everything from bookstores to clothes to kids' stores.

*Quite* appreciated is a description of the eating and drinking at both the museums themselves and restaurants in the surrounding area. As I'm sure you know, sometimes a museum cafe is a destination in itself, and sometimes it's an overpriced fast-food joint. This book really guides you: "small and can be very busy," or "sophisticated French cuisine, with a surprisingly good range of vegetarian options." Plus, the general restaurant listings are clear enough (if short) that I'm certain I'll take this book with me on my next trip.

It does list hotels (also by neighborhood), but they're nothing to shout about. You'll probably want to turn to one of your other travel books (or the Internet) to find a place to stay. ... Read more

Product Description
Launched in 2004, the Art/Shop/Eat pocket guides combine a great contemporary look with the thoroughness of research expected from a Blue Guide publication, making them the perfect choice for the weekend or short-break tourist or business visitor.

• Selective high-quality coverage of the leading museums and galleries
• Where to see the best art
• Great eateries from regional cuisine to innovative new trends with places for all budgets
• The high art of shopping, with the stores you simply cannot miss ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

i love these little guides!
The art/shop/eat travel guides are my favorites. i have several of them and can't say enough good things about them.

the guide is small so it fits easily in (almost) any purse. it is concise, with a bit of info about important landmarks. great maps show various areas of the city (at the beginning they have included "the big picture" with the individual maps outlined so that one can orient him/herself with respect to the whole city). but my favorite aspect of these books is the "art" section. it includes all major museums, listing the most important artworks + maps of the collection and specific locations of the must-see works. i can't stress enough how handy that is when you want to see 4-5 major museums in less than a week.

bottom line: when i am in a city for which an art/shop/eat is available, i practically do not use any other travel book. ... Read more

Product Description
High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Shops at Tanforan is a shopping mall and business area in San Bruno, California, in the Peninsula area of the Bay Area, 10 miles (16 km) south of San Francisco. It is served by the adjacent San Bruno BART subway station and is served by several local SamTrans bus lines. It was reopened in October 2005 after several years of remodeling. Prior to its current role as a shopping mall, Tanforan was a racetrack, serving at various times as an airfield, military training center, internment camp, and golf course. Currently, the site is occupied by a shopping mall which features JCPenney, Sears and Target as its anchor stores. ... Read more

Product Description
For everyone who's finally ready to stop making sense and start wasting time, here's the ultimate instructional manual. Windsail on railroad tracks, play golf in corn fields and the spillways of dams, fly to Borneo to wreck the filming of Survivor, wander around in Boy Scout uniforms, and Food Suits loaded with pork and booze, fantasize in public about sex with Meg Ryan, alienate people and seek the company of dogs and horses. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

I laughed so hard I spit limeaide on myself
This book - how did I find it? - I saw a blurb in Outside magazine in 2003 about it, and what first got me was "Golfing the Lewis and Clark Trail" -- being a huge Corp fan and hungry for anything on the subject.
I carried this cut-out blurb from the magazine for the past 5 years!! I wish I had read it earlier - and yet, now I'm also a Survivor fan, with some insight into the behind-the-scenes shenanigans thanks to Gloria, who knows all -- so I read SURVIVE THIS first. So funny, so right on, so true to the spirit of the strange world of Mark B.It will be read by many a Survivor fan come september -- and if they have any sense, they'll buy the book - from the author - he SIGNS it, it is so cool.His insights are in the league with Mark Twain, what first sounds like someone who has gone berzerk is revealed to be a profoundly deep observer of human nature.

Dispatches from the Real Montana
I know Bill Vaughn as a long-time friend and have previously read several of his magazine articles.However, it was only when eleven of his recent pieces were brought together in this book, that I got a real sense of what special writer he has become.My prior impression was that he was something like the Hunter S. Thompson of the modern adventure magazine - his specialty was writing for Outside magazine about offbeat sports or quasi-adventures, such as golfing a portion of the Lewis and Clark Trail or trying to crash the set of a 'Survivor' episode.You will find that type of piece in this book, but - from my perspective -- when the best of these pieces are read as whole, something much different emerges:a moving chronicle of life outside the mythic Montana of the popular imagination.In the past decade or so, Montana communities such as Big Sky and Bozeman and Whitefish have attracted people with enough wealth to build monstrous homes and spin off a small but growing economy of retainer industries (golf courses, upscale sports stores, coffee shops, good restaurants and the like).But, as Vaughn chronicles, there is still another Montana or many other Montanas - an amalgam of trailer houses, local softball teams, homegrown lawyers and doctors and business owners, liberal writers and narrow-minded bureaucrats.And a common theme among their lives is the contrast between a stirring, interntionally renowned landscape and a per capital income (and cultural capital, if you will) much lower than the national average.It is this Montana that is at the center of Vaughn's work.I started with the piece titled, "Skating Home Backward," which deservedly was nominated for a National Magazine Award."Skating" unveils to the reader the overall span, so far, of Vaughn's life -- from growing up in "Rat Flats" southeast of Great Falls, to living with his wife Kitty Herrin, their horses and dog, on a modest piece of acreage west of Missoula, Montana, just downwind from an odiferous paper mill.From Vaughn's indelible childhood - under the influence of a single father who unabashedly embodied and espoused redneck culture - Vaughn has grown into a man capable of poignant vignettes about loss and hurt and the reclamation of what is good in people and in the lesser lands of Montana.His writing is reflective and moving and, yes, still darkly humorous.He still has not outgrown his redneck father's anger.More than once in this book, he grabs a golf club in anger and stomps off to confront a neighbor over matters of security and property.But the real find in this book is an emerging author who deserves much wider recognition, as he writes about real life amidst the glorious geography of the Rocky Mountains and High Plains.

Laughter and Bliss (with a few snarls)
This essentially self-published collection by a National Magazine Award-nominated writer is brilliant stuff --too bad about the anti-commercial nature of its launch (not the mention the possibly regrettable title). But hidden under this bushel is some of the sharpest, funniest, and sometime most moving personal journalism around. The gems include a story about renovating a junkyard swamp into a thriving wildlife-friendly skating pond, one about the invention of the I'll-never-be-hungry-again Food Suit (with insulated pockets for both hot food and cold beverages), and a gorgeous essay about the life and death of a great dog. ... Read more