Fodors New Orleans 2009 or Los Angeles Entertainment Book 2010

Fodor's New Orleans 2009

Author: Fodors Travel Publications Inc Staff

Fodor’s. For Choice Travel Experiences.

Fodor’s helps you unleash the possibilities of travel by providing the insightful tools you need to experience the trips you want. Although you’re at the helm, Fodor’s offers the assurance of our expertise, the guarantee of selectivity, and the choice details that truly define a destination. It’s like having a friend in New Orleans!

•Updated annually, Fodor’s New Orleans provides the most accurate and up-to-date information available in a guidebook.

•Fodor’s New Orleans features options for a variety of budgets, interests, and tastes, so you make the choices to plan your trip of a lifetime.

•If it’s not worth your time, it’s not in this book. Fodor’s discriminating ratings, including our top tier Fodor’s Choice designations, ensure that you’ll know about the most interesting and enjoyable places in New Orleans.

•Experience New Orleans like a local! Fodor’s New Orleans includes choices for every traveler, from shopping boutiques and walking historic neighborhoods to gallery hopping and late-night clubbing, and much more!

•Indispensable, customized trip planning tools include “Top Reasons to Go,” “Word of Mouth” advice from other travelers, and tips to help save money, bypass lines, and avoid common travel pitfalls.

Visit Fodors.com for more ideas and information, travel deals, vacation planning tips, reviews and to exchange travel advice with other travelers.

Read also Rejevenezca or Understanding Cancer Therapies

Los Angeles Entertainment Book 2010

Author: Entertainment Publications

The Entertainment® Book, A.K.A. THE BIG COUPON BOOK, with over $18,600 in savings, offers its members 50% savings and Buy 1 get 1 FREE offers on the things you do every day and in your own neighborhood. Discounts include: Dining (Fast Food, Casual, and Fine Dining), Services (Personal, Home, Garden, and Auto), Shopping, Attractions, Movie tickets, Golf, and Travel. With over 150 local editions throughout North America, the Entertainment Book is ideal for use in and around Los Angeles/Long Beach, California or while traveling on vacation.

Lonely Planet Ireland or Frommers Maine Coast

Lonely Planet Ireland

Author: Fionn Davenport

Discover Ireland

Hear nothing but wind over stone walls as you walk the edge of the continent on Inisheer.
Taste Ireland's natural bounty as you feast on local produce in Kinsale.
Trade banter with your driver on a black-taxi tour of the political murals of West Belfast.
Tap your toes and raise your glass to a traditional music session in Doolin and Kilfenora.

In This Guide:

Seven authors, over 200 days of research, countless gallons of the black stuff consumed.
Interviews with celebrity chefs, mural artists and fiddlers.
Don't just take our word for it; see what travelers are saying at lonelyplanet.com

Book about: Grand Canyon Wild or Boston 2010 Entertainment Book

Frommer's Maine Coast

Author: Paul Karr

You'll never fall into the tourist traps when you travel with Frommer's. It's like having a friend show you around, taking you to the places locals like best. Our expert authors have already gone everywhere you might go — they've done the legwork for you, and they're not afraid to tell it like it is, saving you time and money. No other series offers candid reviews of so many hotels and restaurants in all price ranges. Every Frommer's Travel Guide is up-to-date, with exact prices for everything, dozens of color maps, and exciting coverage of sports, shopping, and nightlife. You'd be lost without us!

Frommer's Maine Coast gives you all the information you need to navigate the more than 5,500 miles of mainland shoreline, from quaint bed-and-breakfasts and local dining favorites to breathtaking coastal views and perfect places to see fall foliage. Plus, extensive coverage of Acadia National Park and tailored itineraries.

The Middle East or Shadow of the Silk Road

The Middle East: The Nations, Their Histories, and Their Conflicts

Author: Jacob M Fellur

The region known as the Middle East has been a fixture in the Western imagination for more than a century. But how much do you know about the real Middle East—its many nations and cultures, the faiths and customs of its diverse peoples, the opulent past and turbulent present of a land whose often volatile events have changed the course of world history?

This authoritative and objective reference guide to the Middle East illuminates:

• The countries and geography of the region
• The first civilizations and the rise of empires
• Early Islam and the lasting effects of European colonization
• The historical roots of the Israeli and Palestinian conflict
• America’s relations with Iran and Iraq

Packed with straightforward information, fascinating insights, and colorful historical detail, The Middle East is a must-read for anyone interested in not just keeping up with the headlines, but understanding the stories behind them.

Book about: Pippi Longstocking or Moonlight on the Magic Flute

Shadow of the Silk Road

Author: Colin Thubron

To travel the Silk Road, the greatest land route on earth, is to trace the passage not only of trade and armies but also of ideas, religions, and inventions. Making his way by local bus, truck, car, donkey cart, and camel, Colin Thubron covered some seven thousand miles in eight months—out of the heart of China into the mountains of Central Asia, across northern Afghanistan and the plains of Iran into Kurdish Turkey—and explored an ancient world in modern ferment.

The New York Times Book Review - Lorraine Adams

With its elegiac tone, "Shadow of the Silk Road" is moving in a way that's rare in travel literature, sidestepping nostalgia even as it notes its pull. Thubron goes to places most other sojourners can't—because they're not so much geographic locations as states of mind, formed from the lifelong accretion of intriguing facts, mistaken hopes, mysteries. Here, on civilization's oldest and longest road, which isn't quite a road, he has found his way into that kingdom and brought it into focus for us.

The Washington Post - Jonathan Yardley

"...[Thubron] is a scholar as well as a traveler and writer, with the result that Shadow of the Silk Road is as much a history lesson as a contemporary adventure. All in all, a splendid book."

Publishers Weekly

In his latest absorbing travel epic, Thubron (In Siberia; Mirror to Damascus) follows the course—or at least the general drift—of the ancient network of trade routes that connected central China with the Mediterranean Coast, traversing along the way several former Soviet republics, war-torn Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey. The author travels third-class all the way, in crowded, stifling railroad cars and rattle-trap buses and cars, staying at crummy inns or farmers' houses, subject to shakedowns by border guards and constant harassment—even quarantine—by health officials hunting the SARS virus. Physically, these often monotonously arid, hilly regions of Central Asia tend to go by in a swirl of dun-colored landscapes studded with Buddha shrines in varying states of repair or ruin, but Thubron's poetic eye still teases out gorgeous subtleties in the panorama. Certain themes also color his offbeat encounters with locals—most of them want to get the hell out of Central Asia—but again he susses out the infinite variety of ordinary misery. The conduit by which an entire continent exchanged its commodities, cultures and peoples—Thubron finds traces of Roman legionaries and mummies of Celtic tribesmen in western China—the Silk Road becomes for him an evocative metaphor for the mingling of experiences and influences that is the essence of travel. (July 3)

) takes an arduous 7,000-mile journey following the ancient silk trade route from inland China to Turkey's Mediterranean coast. At the very least, his marathon expedition through desert, mountains and war-scarred landscapes testifies to the author's fortitude and resourcefulness. He's quarantined by Chinese authorities during the SARS epidemic, nearly killed by a drunk driver in a head-on collision and forced to endure treatment of an abscessed tooth by a team of Iranian village dentists who don't use anesthetic. Thubron attends a rock concert staged in a Tehran military hospital, dodges suspicious guards at several remote border crossings and searches out the tombs of Genghis Khan, Omar Khayyam and Ayatollah Khomeini. He augments his trenchant narrative with impressive historical background and evocative lyrical prose: "In late autumn the road traversed a near-desert plain. From time to time a faint, brown wash overhung the horizon, as if a watercolorist had started painting mountains there, then forgotten them." Even the most erudite readers, however, may find themselves daunted and disoriented by this lengthy sojourn in such consonant-laden regions as Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, complete with their obscure attendant cultural histories. Until 1498, when the Portuguese sailed around Africa and found a safer route to China's riches, the Silk Road across central Asia was traveled by successions of invaders. East-bound from Rome, Greece and Arabia came poetry, metals and conquering armies. From China, traders carried westward such wonders as silk, paper, gunpowder and the mechanical clock. Thubron carefully picks through the cultural andarcheological remains of a half-dozen societies with a discerning eye and a scholar's discipline, pausing to note the fallout from such relatively recent arrivals as China's murderous Red Guards, the Taliban and ruthless Afghan warlords. He also pauses long enough to meet and introduce a host of memorable characters, including a Chinese college dean and some Afghan truck drivers. An impressive, rewarding and occasionally exhausting trek, most suitable for the hardcore travel reader.

Table of Contents:

Author's note     xiii
Dawn     1
The Capital     7
Mantra     46
The Last Gate Under Heaven     68
The Southern Road     96
Kashgar     138
The Mountain Passage     154
To Samarkand     184
Over the Oxus     219
Mourning     262
The Mongol Peace     294
To Antioch     333
Timeline     346
Index     350

Dogfriendly Coms Lodging Guide for Travelers with Dogs or Arizona and the Grand Canyon 2009

DogFriendly. com's Lodging Guide for Travelers with Dogs: Hotels, Resorts, B&Bs and Vacation Rentals That Welcome Dogs of All Sizes

Author: Tara Kain

The low cost pet-lodging guide that people have been waiting for. DogFriendly.com is used by over 1 million people annually for pet travel information. This pet-friendly lodging guide for the United States and Canada gives up to date information on hotels, resorts, bed & breakfasts and vacation rentals. It also includes the Top 20 cities and resorts to visit with your dogs. Detailed pet policies are included such as pet fees, size limits and how many dogs may be allowed in rooms. Plus, this guide only includes places that allow small, medium and larger dogs and allow dogs in non-smoking rooms as well. This is your guide to the most pet-friendly places to stay with your dog.

Book review: A Beginners Guide to Short Term Trading or The Extraordinary Leader

Arizona and the Grand Canyon 2009

Author: Fodors Travel Publications Inc Staff

Fodor’s. For Choice Travel Experiences.

Fodor’s helps you unleash the possibilities of travel by providing the insightful tools you need to experience the trips you want. Although you’re at the helm, Fodor’s offers the assurance of our expertise, the guarantee of selectivity, and the choice details that truly define a destination. It’s like having a friend in Arizona!

•Updated annually, Fodor’s Arizona and the Grand Canyon provides the most accurate and up-to-date information available in a guidebook.

•Fodor’s Arizona and the Grand Canyon features options for a variety of budgets, interests, and tastes, so you make the choices to plan your trip of a lifetime.

•If it’s not worth your time, it’s not in this book. Fodor’s discriminating ratings, including our top tier Fodor’s Choice designations, ensure that you’ll know about the most interesting and enjoyable places in Arizona.

•Experience Arizona like a local! Fodor’s Arizona and the Grand Canyon includes choices for every traveler, from spa-going in the Valley of the Sun to rafting on the Colorado River and jeep tours in Sedona.

•Indispensable, customized trip planning tools include “Top Reasons to Go,” “Word of Mouth” advice from other travelers, and tips to help save money, bypass lines, and avoid common travel pitfalls.

•Full-color pullout map.

Visit Fodors.com for more ideas and information, travel deals, vacation planning tips, reviews and to exchange travel advice withother travelers.

Table of Contents:

About This Book ............ 6

Chapter 1: Experience Arizona & the Grand Canyon ............ 7
Arizona & Grand Canyon Planner ............ 8
What’s Where ............ 10
Top Arizona & the Grand Canyon Attractions ............ 12
Quintessential Arizona & the Grand Canyon ............ 14
If You Like ............ 16
Top Experiences ............ 18
Great Itineraries ............ 19

Chapter 2: Phoenix, Scottsdale & Tempe ............ 23
Welcome to Phoenix, Scottsdale & Tempe ............ 24
Phoenix, Scottsdale & Tempe Planner ............ 26
Exploring the Valley of the Sun ............ 28
Sports & the Outdoors ............ 44
Where to Eat ............ 52
Best Bets for Phoenix & Scottsdale Dining ............ 56
Where to Stay ............ 75
Best Bets for Phoenix & Scottsdale Lodging ............ 83
Nightlife & the Arts ............ 95
Shopping ............ 102
Side Trips Near Phoenix ............ 108
The Apache Trail ............ 116

Chapter 3: Grand Canyon National Park ............ 125
Welcome to Grand Canyon National Park ............ 126
Grand Canyon National Park Planner ............ 128
Grand Canyon South Rim ............ 130
Grand Canyon North Rim ............ 146
The West Rim & Havasu Canyon ............ 152
What’s Near the Grand Canyon? ............ 156
Where to Stay & Eat ............ 161

Chapter 4: North-Central Arizona ............ 177
Welcome to North-Central Arizona ............ 178
North-Central Arizona Planner ............ 180
Flagstaff ............183
Side Trips near Flagstaff ............ 194
Sedona & Oak Creek Canyon ............ 197
The Verde Valley, Jerome & Prescott ............ 211

Chapter 5: Northeast Arizona ............ 225
Welcome to Northeast Arizona ............ 226
Northeast Arizona Planner ............ 228
Navajo Nation East ............ 230
The Hopi Mesas ............ 241
Navajo Nation West ............ 246
Monument Valley ............ 249
Glen Canyon Dam & Lake Powell ............ 256

Chapter 6: Eastern Arizona ............ 269
Welcome to Eastern Arizona ............ 270
Eastern Arizona Planner ............ 272
The White Mountains ............ 274
The Petrified Forest & the Painted Desert ............ 297

Chapter 7: Tucson ............ 307
Welcome to Tucson ............ 308
Tucson Planner ............ 310
Exploring Tucson ............ 312
Sports & the Outdoors ............ 336
Where to Eat ............ 341
Best Bets for Tucson Dining ............ 343
Where to Stay ............ 352
Best Bets for Tucson Lodging ............ 354
Nightlife & the Arts ............ 363
Shopping ............ 367
Side Trips Near Tucson ............ 370

Chapter 8: Southern Arizona ............ 377
Welcome to Southern Arizona ............ 378
Southern Arizona Planner ............ 380
Southeast Arizona ............ 382
Southwest Arizona ............ 410

Chapter 9: Northwest Arizona & Southeast Nevada ......... 423
Welcome to Northwest Arizona & Southeast Nevada.........424
Northwest Arizona & Southeast Nevada Planner ............ 426
Northwest Arizona ............ 428
Southeast Nevada ............ 438

Understanding Arizona & the Grand Canyon ............ 449

Travel Smart Arizona & the Grand Canyon ............ 452

Index ............ 467

About Our Writers ............ 480

Maps
Downtown and Central Phoenix ............ 30
Greater Phoenix ............ 34
Scottsdale ............ 38
Tempe & Around ............ 42
Where to Eat in the Valley of the Sun ............ 54—55
Where to Stay in the Valley of the Sun ............ 80—81
Side Trips Near Phoenix ............ 109
Grand Canyon South Rim ............ 132
Grand Canyon Village & Rim Trail ............ 140
Grand Canyon North Rim ............ 149
Flagstaff & Environs ............ 184
Sedona & Oak Creek Canyon ............ 198
The Verde Valley, Jerome & Prescott ............ 213
Prescott ............ 219
Navajo Nation East ............ 233
Hopi Mesas ............ 241
Navajo Nation West ............ 246
Monument Valley ............ 252
Glen Canyon Dam & Lake Powell ............ 257
The White Mountains ............ 275
Petrified Forest National Park ............ 299
What to See in Downtown Tucson ............ 314
The University of Arizona ............ 317
Central & East Tucson ............ 320
Catalina Foothills ............ 323
Northwest Tucson & the Westside ............ 326
Saguaro National Park West Unit ............ 329
Saguaro National Park East Unit ............ 330
Where to Stay & Eat in Tucson ............ 344—345
Side Trips Near Tucson ............ 371
Southeast Arizona ............ 386
Southwest Arizona ............ 411
Northwest Arizona ............ 429
Southeast Nevada ............ 439
Bullhead City & Laughlin ............ 441

China Road or Kon Tiki

China Road: A Journey into the Future of a Rising Power

Author: Rob Gifford

Route 312 is the Chinese Route 66. It flows three thousand miles from east to west, passing through the factory towns of the coastal areas, through the rural heart of China, then up into the Gobi Desert, where it merges with the Old Silk Road. The highway witnesses every part of the social and economic revolution that is turning China upside down.

In this utterly surprising and deeply personal book, acclaimed National Public Radio reporter Rob Gifford, a fluent Mandarin speaker, takes the dramatic journey along Route 312 from its start in the boomtown of Shanghai to its end on the border with Kazakhstan. Gifford reveals the rich mosaic of modern Chinese life in all its contradictions, as he poses the crucial questions that all of us are asking about China: Will it really be the next global superpower? Is it as solid and as powerful as it looks from the outside? And who are the ordinary Chinese people, to whom the twenty-first century is supposed to belong?

Gifford is not alone on his journey. The largest migration in human history is taking place along highways such as Route 312, as tens of millions of people leave their homes in search of work. He sees signs of the booming urban economy everywhere, but he also uncovers many of the country’s frailties, and some of the deep-seated problems that could derail China’s rise.

The whole compelling adventure is told through the cast of colorful characters Gifford meets: garrulous talk-show hosts and ambitious yuppies, impoverished peasants and tragic prostitutes, cell-phone salesmen, AIDS patients, and Tibetan monks. He rides with members of a Shanghai jeep club, hitchhikes across the Gobi desert, andsings karaoke with migrant workers at truck stops along the way.

As he recounts his travels along Route 312, Rob Gifford gives a face to what has historically, for Westerners, been a faceless country and breathes life into a nation that is so often reduced to economic statistics. Finally, he sounds a warning that all is not well in the Chinese heartlands, that serious problems lie ahead, and that the future of the West has become inextricably linked with the fate of 1.3 billion Chinese people.

“Informative, delightful, and powerfully moving . . . Rob Gifford’s acute powers of observation, his sense of humor and adventure, and his determination to explore the wrenching dilemmas of China’s explosive development open readers’ eyes and reward their minds.”
–Robert A. Kapp, president, U.S.-China Business Council, 1994-2004

The Washington Post - Susan L. Shirk

Gifford's book is an account of a two-month trip he took along Route 312, which spans the country from east to west like an oriental Route 66. He draws on the extensive knowledge he acquired during six years of reporting from Beijing for National Public Radio. Although not as adventurous a traveler or as vivid an observer as Colin Thubron (whose Shadow of the Silk Road covers some of the same route), Gifford weaves into his travelogue a crash course in Chinese history, geography, economy and society. To him, China is a land of contrasts, and "for every fact that is true…the opposite is almost always true as well, somewhere in the country."

Library Journal

NPR's Beijing bureau chief for six years, Gifford saw just how much China is changing as he traveled along its famed Route 312 from Shanghai to the Kazakhstan border.

Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific by Raft

Author: Thor Heyerdahl

Kon-Tiki is the record of an astonishing adventure — a journey of 4,300 nautical miles across the Pacific Ocean by raft. Intrigued by Polynesian folklore, biologist Thor Heyerdahl suspected that the South Sea Islands had been settled by an ancient race from thousands of miles to the east, led by a mythical hero, Kon-Tiki. He decided to prove his theory by duplicating the legendary voyage.

On April 28, 1947, Heyerdahl and five other adventurers sailed from Peru on a balsa log raft. After three months on the open sea, encountering raging storms, whales, and sharks, they sighted land — the Polynesian island of Puka Puka.

Translated into sixty-five languages, Kon-Tiki is a classic, inspiring tale of daring and courage — a magnificent saga of men against the sea.

Washington Square Press' Enriched Classics present the great works of world literature enhanced for the contemporary reader. This edition of Kon-Tiki has been prepared by an editorial committee headed by Harry Shefter, professor of English at New York University. It includes a foreword by the author, a selection of critical excerpts, notes, an index, and a unique visual essay of the voyage.

Frommers Italy 2009 or Searching for Whitopia

Frommer's Italy 2009 (Frommer's Complete Series)

Author: Danforth Princ

America’s #1 bestselling travel series

Written by more than 175 outspoken travelers around the globe, Frommer’s Complete Guides help travelers experience places the way locals do.

• More annually updated guides than any other series
• 16-page color section and foldout map in all annual guides
• Outspoken opinions, exact prices, and suggested itineraries
• Dozens of detailed maps in an easy-to-read, two-color design

Completely updated every year! Frommer's Italy features gorgeous color photos and maps of the most of the ancient and modern cities, classical architecture and ruins, vineyards, villages, and gorgeous countryside vistas that await you. Much more detailed and comprehensive than the major competition—and now with increased island coverage, this is simply the most reliable and in-depth guide you can buy.

It's personally researched and full of candid opinions. Our authors have chosen the very best places to stay, from the grand hotels of Rome and the chic resorts of Capri to charming and affordable inns and small hotels in regions like Tuscany and the Lake District. And of course, we'll make sure that you dine memorably throughout Italy, whether you're splurging on a world-class restaurant in Florence or looking for a little-known trattoria that serves all the classics.

Wherever you go, you'll rely on Frommer's for authoritative but fun-to-use coverage of all the historic, artistic, and cultural treasures. You'll get a complete shopper's guide, the latest trip-planning advice on everything from bargain airfares to rail passes, and a complete shopper's guide. Frommer's Italy even features acolor fold-out map!

Searching for Whitopia: An Improbable Journey to the Heart of White America

Author: Rich Benjamin

Between 2007 and 2009, Rich Benjamin, a journalist-adventurer, packed his bags and embarked on a 26,909-mile journey throughout the heart of white America, to some of the fastest-growing and whitest locales in our nation.

By 2042, whites will no longer be the American majority. As immigrant populations—largely people of color—increase in cities and suburbs, more and more whites are moving to small towns and exurban areas that are predominately, even extremely, white.

Rich Benjamin calls these enclaves "Whitopias" (pronounced: "White-o-pias").

His journey to unlock the mysteries of Whitopias took him from a three-day white separatist retreat with links to Aryan Nations in North Idaho to the inner sanctum of George W. Bush's White House—and many points in between. And to learn what makes Whitopias tick, and why and how they are growing, he lived in three of them (in Georgia, Idaho, and Utah) for several months apiece. A compelling raconteur, bon vivant, and scholar, Benjamin reveals what Whitopias are like and explores the urgent social and political implications of this startling phenomenon.

The glow of Barack Obama's historic election cannot obscure the racial and economic segregation still vexing America. Obama's presidency has actually raised the stakes in a battle royale between two versions of America: one that is broadly comfortable with diversity yet residentially segregated (ObamaNation) and one that does not mind a little ethnic food or a few mariachi dancers—as long as these trends do not overwhelm a white dominant culture (Whitopia).

Rich Benjamin is Senior Fellow at Demos, a nonpartisannational think tank based in New York City. His social and political commentary is featured in major newspapers nationwide, on NPR and Fox Radio, and in many scholarly venues. He holds a B.A. from Wesleyan University and a Ph.D. from Stanford University.

Publishers Weekly

Starting in 2007, Benjamin, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan think tank Demos, and, more significantly, an African-American, spent two years traveling through America's whitest communities—patches of Idaho and Utah and even pockets of New York City—where, according to his research, more and more white people have been seeking refuge from the increasingly multicultural reality that is mainstream America. There's plenty of potential in this premise, but Benjamin writes without any sense of purpose, alternating between undigested interviews with policy experts, self-indulgent digressions on the pleasures of golf and real estate shopping and sketchy portraits of his subjects. Despite Benjamin's countless conversations with everyone from Ed Gillespie, former head of the GOP, to a drunk in an Idaho bar, he never offers any fresh insights or practical suggestions. He concludes by barraging the reader with a series of unearned “musts”: “we must revitalize the public sector,” “we must work hard for a new universalism.” If his time in the nation's whitest enclaves gave him any specific thoughts about how those ideals might be achieved, he would have done well to share them. (Nov.)

Library Journal

Widely reported demographic shifts in contemporary America include the increase and diffusion of Latino populations and the relative population decline of Caucasians. Alongside these is a perhaps more subtle corollary, a phenomenon journalist Benjamin calls Whitopia ("white-opia"): disproportionately (generally over 90 percent) white communities that have grown rapidly in recent years, with most of the population growth also white. To learn about such communities, Benjamin here immerses himself in the life, culture, and politics of St. George, UT; Coeur d'Alene, ID; Forsyth County, GA; and Manhattan's Upper East Side Carnegie Hill area. A well-traveled black writer from a multiracial family, Benjamin hardly undertakes this venture incognito. But with his tact, genuine interest in people, and zest for golf, real estate, and socializing, Benjamin ingratiates himself nearly everywhere he goes and gains significant insights from residents, businesspeople and civic leaders. Benjamin's timely journey is surprising and provocative. He critically examines racial and economic segregation, structural racism, hostility to immigration, the rising political power of exurbs, and other sociopolitical realities that bespeak, in his assessment, a growing failure in commitment to the common good—yet he also demonstrates respect for his interviewees and offers his pointed assessments only after a thoughtful, open-minded exploration. VERDICT Written at the lay reader's level and in highly anecdotal narrative fashion, this is for all readers interested in the sociopolitics of America today. It will also be valued by policymakers and social scientists.—Janet Ingraham Dwyer, Worthington Libs.,OH

Kirkus Reviews

A black scholar moves into some of America's whitest communities, attempting to do for race what Barbara Ehrenreich did for class. Benjamin opens with a surprising statistic. "By 2042," he writes, "whites will no longer be the American majority." Perhaps even more surprising was the response that he noticed from white communities, particularly in urban areas. In an almost exaggerated version of "white flight," white populations were rising in particular communities across America. The author decided to spend time in three of those places. His first stop was St. George, Utah, home to both a bustling community of new retirees as well as a growing population of young families. There Benjamin rented a house from a rare black Mormon, joined a poker group and befriended a group of retired women. Next was Couer d'Alene, Idaho, where he settled into a pleasant life of work and dinner parties in a community that valued the outdoors. Finally, Forsyth, Ga., where Benjamin immersed himself in a church youth group. The author's experiences in "Whitopia" were surprisingly pleasant, particularly compared to a mugging incident near his home in racially diverse New York. But Benjamin is clear in his conclusion that this trend is not healthy for either white or minority communities. Ideally, he writes, each group should thrive on the resources of the city and on the influence of the other groups. Already, white communities are suffering from problems like unchecked sprawl and bad schools, and low-income minority groups are also losing access to the social capital of middle-class groups. Benjamin's points are articulate and well-reasoned, but many of them seem to function independently of his actual journeyor his time spent in each community. Interesting social experiments unevenly integrated into an intriguing thesis. Agent: Tina Bennett/Janklow & Nesbit

What People Are Saying

Barbara Ehrenreich
Benjamin goes where no (sane) black man has gone before—into the palest enclaves, like Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, to those places where white Americans have fled to escape the challenges of diversity. (Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed)

David Sirota
A courageous book that holds a mirror up to our country—and the reflection is one we can no longer afford to ignore. (David Sirota, author and syndicated columnist)

Andrew Ross
Searching for Whitopia will be a major publication, widely read and discussed. (Andrew Ross, author of The Celebration Chronicles)

Edwidge Danticat
An essential tool in questioning, appreciating, and better understanding these most historic times. (Edwidge Danticat, author of Breath, Eyes, Memory)

Christian Lander
The revelatory chapters about New York City made me want to cry . . . Generous and understanding to all of its subjects, Searching for Whitopia is a eulogy for an unsustainable America lifestyle. (Christian Lander, creator of Stuff White People Like)