Average customer rating:
- Motel Mania My Goodness
- Fascinating pictures and very interesting documentary
|
The Motel in America (The Road and American Culture)
John A. Jakle ,
Keith A. Sculle , and
Jefferson S. Rogers
Manufacturer: The Johns Hopkins University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Architecture
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
Landscape
| Architecture
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Building Types & Styles
| Architecture
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
Hospitality, Travel & Tourism
| Industries & Professions
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Landscape
| Gardening & Horticulture
| Home & Garden
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Regions
| United States
| Travel
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Travel
| Subjects
| Books
Social History
| Historical Study
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Culture
| Sociology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Look Inside Business Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Look Inside History Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Look Inside Home & Garden Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Look Inside Nonfiction Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Look Inside Travel Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
All Titles
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Business & Investing
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Home & Garden
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Nonfiction
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Professional
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Travel
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
The Gas Station in America (Creating the North American Landscape)
-
Fast Food: Roadside Restaurants in the Automobile Age (The Road and American Culture)
-
Main Street to Miracle Mile: American Roadside Architecture
-
The American Motel
-
Motel America: A State-By-State Tour Guide to Nostalgic Stopovers
ASIN: 0801869188 |
Book Description
In the second volume of the acclaimed "Gas, Food, Lodging" trilogy, authors John Jakle, Keith Sculle, and Jefferson Rogers take an informative, entertaining, and comprehensive look at the history of the motel. From the introduction of roadside tent camps and motor cabins in the 1910s to the wonderfully kitschy motels of the 1950s that line older roads and today's comfortable but anonymous chains that lure drivers off the interstate, Americans and their cars have found places to stay on their travels. Motels were more than just places to sleep, however. They were the places where many Americans saw their first color television, used their first coffee maker, and walked on their first shag carpet.
Illustrated with more than 230 photographs, postcards, maps, and drawings, The Motel in America details the development of the motel as a commercial enterprise, its imaginative architectural expressions, and its evolution within the place-product-packaging concept along America's highways. As an integral part of America's landscape and culture, the motel finally receives the in-depth attention it deserves.
Customer Reviews:
Motel Mania My Goodness.......2004-10-03
This book is not a big coffee table picture book. It is not a book to take to the beach. But I could see taking this book on vacation - that is if you were driving the old state highways that may still have some of the kewl vintage motels and stuff. This book covers a lot of ground and it would be of interest to those who enjoy funky motels and stuff. The writing style is not a fun as I would like - perhaps this book started out as a college thesis. But the info and pictures make it a good buy for the money.
Fascinating pictures and very interesting documentary.......1999-07-09
Upon completion of this book, the reader will have a complete history of the growth of today's hotel industry from the days of tourist camps, through motor courts, motels, and now motor inns. It is well researched, very quick reading, and gives an excellent history of this major form of commerce during the earlier part of the 20th century. The only thing missing might be a pictoral diagram showing the evolution of early chains into today's major lodging chains. I would also suggest a little more detail on the circumstances of some of the chain's that went out of business. Either way, a great piece for anyone interested in travel history and highway evolution.
Book Description
The best crowd-pleasing recipes from widely acclaimed country inns and bed and breakfasts in the United States are collected in this unique cookbook and travel guide. Includes over 500 inns and more than 1,700 recipes from every state.
Customer Reviews:
It's my 'go to' cookbook of choice!.......2003-09-07
I can't you how many times I've gone to my copy of this cookbook for recipes... it's the one I reach for first! It's like taking a trip around the country without leaving my home! VERY user friendly format, too!
I love the small-sized recipes that many of the B&B's and Inns use... hubby and I are 'empty nesters' most of the year with our sons away at college so there's no need to make big meals or we'd be eating leftovers forever.
Great Ideas for Food and Travel in One Great Book............2003-04-28
This review refers to "The American Country Inn and Bed & Breakfast Cookbook"(vol 1) by Kitty and Lucian Maynard....
St Chuck Poolside Jambalaya to North Carolina Applsauce Muffins, Aunt Ruth's Baked Eggs and Cheese to Dorothy's Chocolate Zucchini Cake, Guacamole to Lobster Pie to Salt Lake City Taffy, you'll find the biggest and best collection of regional homestyle cooking from all over this great food lovin country in this fabulous cookbook!
Whatever type of fare you have in mind you'll find something good in these pages. The Manyard's have done all the work. State to State(including Alaska and Hawaii) they have found us some great recipes from Country Inns and Bed and Breakfast's from all over the country. With more than 1700 homestyle recipes you really get your money's worth.
You can go state to state(without leaving home) and try something new and different, or find some of your old favorites that you've been longing for.
There are two indexes to check through. You can check by city, or by food. For a good look at what's inside, the book, click on the 'Look Inside" link to several pages to browse through.The recipes range from meals as simple as Biscuits and Eggs to the more exotic tastes like Veal Scallops with Gorgonzola Sauce. You'll find several different ways of making the most everyday things, like French Toast, depending on what State or Regional taste you're in the mood for that day!
There's an additional perk to this cookbook as well. If you want to get out of your own kitchen and do a little traveling, you will find a little description as well as the addresses and phone numbers for all the Inn's used here, on the pages with their own recipes.In some cases there are nice little sketches of the lodgings as well.
I use this cookbook more than any other in my kitchen. although I haven't loved every single thing I've tried, it is stained and sticky with the remnants of some terrific recipes(some of my favorite pages are in worse shape than others!). Everytime I look through it for a new idea I find one. I love it! You will too.
So have fun, eat hardy and try to get someone else to do the clean-up.....enjoy...Laurie
Excellent source for finding forgotten recipes..........2003-01-01
Have both books - and they are both much used in our kitchen. I have been able to find recipes for dishes others would not share based on ingredients. The index of foods is probably the greatest thing about this book and directly contributes to the usability.
Absolutely something for everyone in this book - even holiday recipes. Between the two books, I have noticed a couple of recipes duplicated, but not enough to lessen the value of either.
Definitely one to have on the shelf if you enjoy having a broad sampling of American cooking close at hand!
the american country inn and bed and breakfast cookbook.......2001-07-01
This cookbook is great !!!! i borrowed it from a friend and never gave it back (bad!!!) but it really is a great source for entertaining. Fanstastic and easy recipes. A good way to impress your friends with your cooking. Also what i like is they usually have serveral recipes for similar dishes so lets say you want to make scalloped potatoes - you can look at them all and then kind of use the info to make your own variation with the pieces of the recipes you think sound good. Also it is good if you are doing theme parties. I love asian cooking we were having a party where i needed to bring an asian salad - they have like 5 different types. and they arent what you would expect. Note this is just not breakfast foods - all types of cooking are in this book and from all types of us regions.
I have BOTH American Country Inn books........2000-05-06
They are both terrific. I am waiting for another? I buy them and give them for gifts. There aren't any pictures, but they are not needed. Lots of variety, of both food, and in the variety of the B&B's all over the US.
Average customer rating:
|
Grand American Hotels
Catherine Donzel ,
Alexis Gregory , and
Marc Walter
Manufacturer: Vendome Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| Architecture
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
Residential
| Building Types & Styles
| Architecture
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
Hotels, Restaurants, & Retail Spaces
| Building Types & Styles
| Architecture
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Home Design
| Home & Garden
| Subjects
| Books
Spas & Resorts
| Stress
| Personal Health
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
French
| Foreign Language Nonfiction
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Travel
| Subjects
| Books
Look Inside Health Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Look Inside Home & Garden Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Look Inside Travel Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Arts & Photography
| French
| Foreign Language Books
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Health, Mind & Body
| French
| Foreign Language Books
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Nonfiction
| French
| Foreign Language Books
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Professional & Technical
| French
| Foreign Language Books
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Travel
| French
| Foreign Language Books
| Specialty Stores
| Books
All French Books
| French
| Foreign Language Books
| Specialty Stores
| Books
ASIN: 0865651108 |
Book Description
The three New Jersey beach resorts known collectively as The Wildwoods have recently been the subject of widespread notice for their unique concentration of mid-century commercial architecture. Known in The Wildwoods as Doo Wop, the style is mostly represented in the resorts' surviving motels, built between 1955 and 1970, and comes in a variety of forms: Modern, with jet-age glass walls; Vroom!, with thrusting pointed features; and Polynesian Pop, with thatched roofs and tiki torches. This fun, colorful book recounts the stories of the motels, describes their special features--from glorious neon signs to ubiquitous plastic palm trees--and covers the recent Neo-Doo Wop buildings that have risen in the wake of Doo Wop preservation.
Customer Reviews:
Wildwood Crest Memories.......2007-08-26
If you were a kid in the 50's and 60's and spent your summer vacations in Wildwood Crest, NJ, you will love this book. It is chock full of pictures and stories of all the motels that lit up the summer nights with their creative and thematic neon signs. So, put on some Beach Boys or Four Tops music, and sit down with this delightful look back at one of the most colorful memories of your childhood or teen years. Thanks to Kirk Hastings for putting it together.
Wild About This Book.......2007-02-04
You don't have to know Wildwood to love this book, but when you finish it
you'll want to go. Hastings does more than write about the history and
architecture of this unique place, he brings its heart and soul alive. This
wonderfully kitschy resort has a fanatically loyal following - people come back
year after year for decades, staying in places built in the 50's and 60's
with names like the Astronaut,the Kona Kai,the Bonanza, the Ebb Tide,
the Singapore or the Tahiti. Just driving down the street was a lesson in
pop culture. DOO WOP MOTELS is fun, informative and obviously written
by someone who loves Wildwood. Unfortunately it's also one of the only
places to see these architectual treasures, since many have been
torn down in recent years in the name of "progress." The photographs of the
motels are beautiful...you'll feel like you're there sipping a drink
under a plastic palm, the "official" tree of the Wildwoods.
Book Description
Taking their name from an amalgamation of the words motor and hotel, motels were conceived in the 1920s as roadside lodges for motorists who increasingly set out on vacations by car. As such, the motels development has largely paralleled that of the automobile. Michael Karl Witzel examines the evolution, architecture and decor of the motel in all its forms.
Customer Reviews:
The One Motel Book to Have.......2002-05-29
I have the Margolies motel book and personally, I think Witzel has the lock when it comes to research and writing. Sure, this is some in-depth stuff and can be dry at times (these are motels, after all), but the dedicated road enthusiast/pop culture historian really wants to know all of this information. A collection of photographs with just a little bit of text does little to document history. Witzel's book not only has a great collection of images, but the editorial depth needed to tell the story. If I were to recommend one book on motels, Witzel's The American Motel would be the one. A seminal work on one of our most cherished American/roadside icons.
Great topic but lacks something.......2002-01-07
Certainly informative but I would recommend John Margolies' shorter but sweeter "Home Away from Home" instead of this book if you want the one "must-read" on motels. The two books contain much of the same information and are similarly organized, but the layout of Witzel's book is lousy, with the (admittedly great) photos not flowing well with the text, which is flat and not especially engaging. There is, however, a 2 page glossy spread on the history of "magic fingers", the kind of info just NOT in your average history text.
Excellent and Thoroughly Enjoyable!!.......2000-09-23
I love Michael Karl Witzel's books (his Route 66 book inspired me to drive the whole route). This may be his best one yet. It has great photos and interesting text and brings back wonderful memories of childhood vacations, when getting to spend the night in a motel was half the fun. But one of the other great aspects of this book is its ability to appeal to a variety of readers, not just fans of the motel. If you enjoy pop culture, roadtrips, roadside Americana, or traveling, this book is for you. I highly recommend it!
A comphrehensive look at a rare topic.......2000-09-22
I'm a HUGE fan of Motorbooks' Car Culture series, and also a HUGE fan of funky old motels. Michael Karl Witzel's book is a long-overdue look at a topic that is unfortunately ignore in today's chain-obsessed America. The cabin-style motels of the past have a charm that I wouldn't mind seeing anew.
I do agree with Doug that Mr. Witzel sometimes drifted to the preachy side, being a little too harsh on unmarried couples who rented rooms and the proprietors who let them. But still, this beautifully illustrated book is an absolute MUST for motel fans.
Witzel knows what is what!.......2000-09-08
As a fan of Mike's work, also being two of his contemporaries, we know this book is another must have for those seeking a nostalgia lesson. Most people never have the ability nor the vision to produce works like this. When they are done, readers should snap them up, not pick them apart! We would advise everyone to buy a copy. Motels can now live forever, they certainly do in this book!
Average customer rating:
- Just finished it this morning
- better than bag balm for a cracked udder
- To being REAL...
- One of America's best writers!
- Crandell writes another excellent memoir
|
The All-American Industrial Motel: A Memoir
Doug Crandell
Manufacturer: Chicago Review Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Memoirs
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Essays
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| United States
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Men
| Gender Studies
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Men
| Sociology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Similar Items:
-
The Flawless Skin of Ugly People: A Novel
-
Pig Boy's Wicked Bird: A Memoir
ASIN: 1556526164 |
Book Description
This volatile memoir from Doug Crandell weaves a darkly comic and thoroughly heartbreaking coming-of-age tale set in 1990 as the author is about to graduate from college. With very few job prospects and in need of tuition money, he joins his father working at a ceiling tile factory in tiny Lagro, Indiana. As his father moves headlong into a midlife crisis—complete with a bad toupee and a penchant for drinking on the job—Crandell’s mother struggles with depression and talks in the third person as she manages a fast-food joint, where she compels her crew to dress in homemade costumes. As the author struggles to finish his degree, he also fights the urge to stay where he is and end up a “lifer” like his father. But before long, the monotonous work takes its toll on Crandell, making him realize just how similar he and his dad are. From their joint substance abuse to their feelings about the coworkers they watch buried from asbestosis, the Crandell men struggle to find a way to communicate. This powerful book explores themes of modern manhood, hope, and the power of labor to bring together workers, families, and even macho men.
Customer Reviews:
Just finished it this morning.......2007-05-13
Tender and true. I hated hated hated for it to end.
better than bag balm for a cracked udder.......2007-04-01
This book is better than J.R. Moehringer's The Tender Bar and the The Tender Bar is a near perfect Memoir. Here is the difference. With Moehringer, like Crandell, you are getting a story that will change you, but with Crandell's The All-American Industrial Motel you are right there beside Doug, hearing what he is hearing, seeing what he sees, and trying to breathe like Doug is trying to breathe. Chapter 18, is one of the best chapters in modern literature. Those who need this book the most, men twenty-six to forty, the Gen Xer's, whose confusion and raw votes led us to the America we have today--the killing--will try to say Crandell's account of finding your life in the Reagan Years and it's black greed wake, doesn't apply. But a few oh so lucky ones will know they have finally found the salve. While they didn't grow up in the forsaken tornado flatland of Northern Indiana, they still struggled and are still struggling with everything Doug Crandell has been so brave to share. Crandell has raised the shades men. It's time to give up the Kettle One. Put the Red Bull and Jaeger back on the shelf men and pick up Crandell's All-American Industrial Motel. Those products were meant for someone else your same age, not you. You are the son of your own father. Thank you Doug Crandell.
To being REAL..........2007-03-28
This exquisite Memoir will split your heart in two and you will wonder how you had survived with just the one before. The union workers in The All-American Industrial Motel are men I have known and loved my whole life. Their lives are as true as the story Doug tells of his awesome summer in Indiana working in the ceiling tile factory with them and it has taken me three quiet days to gain sufficient perspective from the book to write about it. It is that piercing, that honest, the voices so vulnerable that the reader is raw from the connection.
Doug Crandell writes to us so much of himself and of so much love and respect for his family that you want at once to hide in the life you've made, safe from the hurt of having left, all the while longing to be there again soaking up all the intricacies of family.
To real work, real love and real risk the author pays homage and I am grateful to have been in the audience for such bravery!
One of America's best writers!.......2007-03-13
My Top Ten list of American writers changes with my mood and interests. The list is populated by Sherwood Anderson, David James Duncan, Ezra Pound (not from Europe, but from Idaho actually!), Steinbeck, Tennessee Williams, Delillo, O'Connor, et al. But, with his earlier work, PigBoy, Doug Crandell leapt onto the list, and his place is cemented by his latest memoir, The All-American Industrial Motel. The story is tender and frightening in the way that secrets between fathers and sons can be: the truth you both know but don't dare speak. The book is funny, heart-felt, and strangely riveting. Having had more minimum-wage jobs than I care to recall, where I was the college boy amongst the blue-collars, relating to this story, and the thick atmosphere of the factory culture, is comforting in the way that sleep is after pulling a double shift.
Crandell reveals enough herein to make one nervous with an anticipation of future events that other authors could never wring from common lives. This is the author's gift: making the melancholy struggle of mid-west lives seem more important than those we read of in the tabloids. And of course, they are. Thanks Doug for a great book!
Crandell writes another excellent memoir.......2007-02-16
Like his first memoir, Pig Boy's Wicked Bird, the All-American Industrial Motel takes place during one pivotal year in Doug Crandell's life. In this new memoir, the year is 1990 and Crandell is one class away from college graduation and is working at a factory in Indiana along with his father. The farm is gone, and his family has been facing tough times. The tension within the family at this point is volatile, and Crandell's deteriorating relationship with his father is described in fantastic detail. Crandell finds an escape in his friendship with Jerry, a rough co-worker who he's known most of his life but has only befriended during his time in the factory. His ordeal is heart-wrenching as he tries get his father to open up emotionally and balances whether he should just leave with his degree or stay and become a "lifer" at the factory as he watches those who have taken this path. The book may seem bleak, but you will not be able to put it down. You feel a connection with Crandell, and will find yourself drawn in by the people who he befriends in the factory. You will also find yourself frustrated by Crandell's own frustrations and his family's bad decisions. Crandell is a writer of extraordinary ability, a wordsmith which you should not dismiss.
Average customer rating:
- Detroit Racism Comes Alive
- The book told the untold truth about what happen that night!
|
The Algiers Motel Incident
John Hersey , and
William J. Eisen
Manufacturer: The Johns Hopkins University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
1945 - Present
| 20th Century
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
1960s
| 20th Century
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| State & Local
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Michigan
| State & Local
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Midwest
| State & Local
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
History
| African Americans
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Social History
| Historical Study
| History
| Subjects
| Books
America
| Race Relations
| Sociology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Race Relations
| Sociology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
African-American Studies
| Special Groups
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Criminology
| Crime & Criminals
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
True Crime
| True Accounts
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
All Titles
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Nonfiction
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Detroit, I Do Mind Dying: A Study in Urban Revolution (Classics Series)
-
Detroit Divided
-
Whose Detroit?: Politics, Labor, and Race in a Modern American City
-
Key West Tales: Stories
-
Grit, Noise, and Revolution: The Birth of Detroit Rock 'n' Roll
ASIN: 0801857775 |
Book Description
"Hersey's book is based on months of personal investigation and contains evidence never before made public. He ransacked every available piece of documentation. Thus armed, he tried to work out a tentative scenario of events and, more important, used his data to build up what may be the truest picture yet of the white policeman's role in the ghettos... His collage of interviews, fact, and intuition... jells into a forceful dossier against racism in the U.S. system of justice." -- R.A. Sokolov, Newsweek
Thirty years ago, three black men were killed and nine other people brutally beaten by, as John Hersey describes it in The Algiers Motel Incident, an "aggregate of Detroit police, Michigan State Troopers, National Guardsmen, and private guards who had been directed to the scene." Responding to a telephoned report of sniping, the police group invaded the Algiers Motel and interrogated ten black men and two white women, none of whom were armed, for an hour. By the time the interrogators left, three men had been shot to death and the others, including the women, beaten.
Customer Reviews:
Detroit Racism Comes Alive.......2002-02-26
John Hersey needs no raves from me. At chronicalling the major events of the 20th century in living prose he has absolutely no peer. In this book he focuses in on the entire racist system acting in one chilling incident of the Detroit Riot of 1967, in which the police, trapping several people of mixed ethnicity tortured some of them, murdered others, and could not be brought to justice.
The book told the untold truth about what happen that night!.......1999-11-06
I am the niece of Carl Cooper, and I am glad that John wrote the book! I was told that John may have been killed over the book. The book told the truth about white cops in those days. My grandmother (Carl Cooper's Mother) has never been the same since my uncle's death. When he died it took apart of her that she will never beable to regain.
Product Description
This herculean saga of city building is a story not only of weather, place, beach and buildings but also of people-people with foresight, dedication and determination. In the mid-1920s, no one could have known that today's sophisticated city of Sunny Isles Beach would eventually emerge from what was then little more than a sandbar. Starting from the original vision of Harvey Baker Graves, the area developed into one of the nation's foremost tourist destinations and eventually into a great city. On the tenth anniversary of the city's incorporation, this collection of vintage and current images commemorates the beauty and uniqueness of the past and honors the city's founders, developers and citizens.
Customer Reviews:
excelent.......2007-04-07
this book tells me all about the area of sunny Isles,its hotels land mass,and a little about the future of it.
Average customer rating:
- The fun book
- an archaeology classic
- Macaulay has some fun
- A book ALL Archaeologists / Historians should read
- Motel of the Mysteries
|
Motel of the Mysteries
David MacAulay
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin (T)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| Humor
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
Satire, General
| Humor
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
General
| History & Criticism
| United States
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Contemporary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Foreign Languages
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
jp-unknown1
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Pyramid
-
City: A Story of Roman Planning and Construction
-
Mosque
-
Rome Antics
-
Cathedral: The Story of Its Construction (Sandpiper)
ASIN: 0395284244 |
Book Description
It is the year 4022; all of the ancient country of Usa has been buried under many feet of detritus from a catastrophe that occurred back in 1985. Imagine, then, the excitement that Howard Carson, an amateur archeologist at best, experienced when in crossing the perimeter of an abandoned excavation site he felt the ground give way beneath him and found himself at the bottom of a shaft, which, judging from the DO NOT DISTURB sign hanging from an archaic doorknob, was clearly the entrance to a still-sealed burial chamber. Carson's incredible discoveries, including the remains of two bodies, one of then on a ceremonial bed facing an altar that appeared to be a means of communicating with the Gods and the other lying in a porcelain sarcophagus in the Inner Chamber, permitted him to piece together the whole fabric of that extraordinary civilization.
Customer Reviews:
The fun book.......2007-10-05
Absolutely enjoyable, all age readership done with genuine style and that utterly necessary dose of humor so lacking in our modern world. Motel of the Mysteries truly does show what happens when we, the "modern" researchers, imprint our beliefs and values on a prior culture. It is most definitely worth reading. I bought several copies for my friends.
an archaeology classic.......2007-08-06
Archaeologists spend so much time thinking about the past, and it's inevitable that occasionally we wonder just what those in the future will think about us. This does, of course, poke some fun at the profession and the logic employed in how we come about our conclusions, while making you wonder just how wrong we might be in that regard. A must-read for archaeologists with a sense of humor, though just about anyone will find this humorous and entertaining.
Macaulay has some fun.......2007-07-24
I have always been a big fan of Macaulay's work. The humor that makes "The Way Things Work" so much fun is here in full force in "Motel of the Mysteries." The erroneous interpretations by Macaulay archeologist from the future are a riot.
Written about the time the country went crazy for King Tut and Rameses exhibits around the country, it's a fun read by a great illustrator and funny writer.
A book ALL Archaeologists / Historians should read.......2003-07-25
If you are a fan of David Macaulay's books about the contruction of such wonders as a Cathedral, Pyramid, City, Mill, etc ... then you will really enjoy this book about future archaeologists / explorers "discovering" the burried ruins of an American motel room in the 41st century ... and the miss-identification of just about every item found.
I think that this is a book that every archaeologist / historian should read because it perfectly explains the traps that we may fall into when trying to explain the past using present day knowledge and sensibilities.
The events portrayed in this book show the reader just how easy it is to make a mistake ... even when one's best intentions are at stake.
Then again, it is a David Macaulay (always great) and it is funny! Especially the Museum Gift Store items displayed at the end of the book.
Motel of the Mysteries.......2003-06-13
I think this book is creatively written to get young people to read, and to get a good laugh about how people in the future look at people in the past.
Books:
- The Mysterious Benedict Society
- The Natural Soap Book: Making Herbal and Vegetable-Based Soaps
- The New American Story
- The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It's Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life
- The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One: The Greatest Science Fiction Stories of All Time Chosen by the Members of the Science Fiction Writers of America (SF Hall of Fame)
- The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America
- The Society of the Spectacle
- The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O'Neil's America
- The Wisdom of Crowds
- Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain: How a New Science Reveals Our Extraordinary Potential to Transform Ourselves
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Customer Relationship Management: A Strategic Imperative in the World of E-Business
- The Well-Tended Perennial Garden: Planting and Pruning Techniques
- The Complete Independent Movie Marketing Handbook
- RFID: A Guide to Radio Frequency Identification
- The Original Sudoku Book 2
- Where Did I Come From
- The Yearling
- Accounting and Finance for Non-Specialists
- Principles Of Space-time Coding
- Corporate Reorganization and Bankruptcy: Legal and Financial Materials