by Graham Mitchell ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 3, 2014
A flawed yet engaging and informative on-the-ground travel guide.
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A former wilderness guide recalls working in the Florida Everglades in this passionate if at times crude travel guide–cum-memoir.
In his debut, Mitchell recounts taking waves of anxious tourists through the alligator-infested waters of the Everglades. The book is shaped into a series of tours through the national park, punctuated by humorous anecdotes along the way. A former IT security specialist from the Isle of Wight, Mitchell lived and worked at the Everglades International Hostel offering various immersion excursions to the guests. Many of the tours described are on foot, walking knee-deep in water. In true tour-guide fashion, Mitchell leads readers step by step through this alien landscape, describing flora and fauna along the way. He warns of saw grass that can “shred your clothing and skin,” the infamous and highly venomous cottonmouth snake, and, of course, the American alligator, the “keeper of the glades.” Mitchell has a keen eye for topography, and some of the most fascinating descriptions come in the shape of the various cypress domes that dot the park. These ponds, below a tree canopy that forms the shape of a dome, house a variety of wildlife and are foreboding to enter. Mitchell describes tourists blanching at the sight of a resident alligator or screaming as turtles brush by their ankles. In the preface to the book, Mitchell says, “The Everglades are a wild and poetic landscape that is largely indescribable,” yet he compensates with stunning color photographs and a wealth of background information. The book is, however, prone to repetition. For instance, Mitchell twice describes the differences between an alligator and a crocodile, and he repeatedly refers to how touching some wildlife in the park is deemed “harassment.” A few of his anecdotes might be considered puerile—forever the prankster, he describes putting his own feces beneath the pillow of a colleague—and indeed, such anecdotes are mostly unnecessary and muddy the tone of a perfectly readable travel guide, limiting the book’s audience in the process.
A flawed yet engaging and informative on-the-ground travel guide.Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4996-0684-3
Page Count: 276
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
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by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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