Diners, Drive-ins and Dives: An All-American Road Trip . . . with Recipes! (Food Network)

Product Description

Food Network star Guy Fieri takes you on a tour of America's most colorful diners, drive-ins, and dives in this tie-in to his enormously popular television show, complete with recipes, photos, and memorabilia.

Packed with Guy's iconic personality, Diners, Drive-ins and Dives follows his hot-rod trips around the country, mapping out the best places most of us have never heard of. From digging in at legendary burger joint the Squeeze Inn in Sacramento, California, baking Peanut Pie from Virginia Diner in Wakefield, Virginia, or kicking back with Pete's "Rubbed and Almost Fried" Turkey Sandwich from Panini Pete's in Fairhope, Alabama, Guy showcases the amazing personalities, fascinating stories, and outrageously good food offered by these American treasures.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Product Details
Amazon Sales Rank: #107 in Books
Published on: 2008-11-01
Released on: 2008-10-28
Original language: English
Number of items: 1
Binding: Paperback
256 pages

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
The iron-stomached Fieri, restaurant owner and Food Network personality, has probably choked down more burgers, bacon, pancakes, hash browns and fried eggs than any person should have to, and this dense, photo-packed retrospective allows viewers to replicate many of his favorite restaurants' recipes at home. Like the show, Fieri takes diners on a tour of the country's best local eateries, like Kansas City favorite YJ's Snack Bar, which uses two electric burners and a sidewalk grill to crank out exotic fare from around the world; James Beard Award-winning Al's Breakfast in Minneapolis; and all culinary points in between. The book contains a fair number of predictable classics like coconut cream pie, macaroni and cheese, meatloaf and burgers (including one that's dipped in batter and deep-fried), but has an equal number of interesting riffs such as Cap'n Crunch French Toast, Nut N' Honey Pancakes, Pork and Sweet Potato Empanadas and Chicken Fried Lamb Chops. Viewers' requests are also featured, including the Red Arrow Diner's American Chop Suey. Rounded out with plenty of behind-the-scenes anecdotes and local color, this tour of off-the-beaten-path establishments has enough regional entries to keep culinary road-trippers busy (and full) for many, many miles.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Customer Reviews
Tasty, though funnier in person
Fans of Diners Drive-ins and Dives will really love this book. It takes readers across a wide range of classic american food joints, with humorous anecdotes, great descriptions of the atmosphere in said places, with some recipes from them.

Though the jokes don't carry well in writing and you miss some of Guy's voice in his writing, you still get a great feel for these classically American restaurants, with good stories and great recipes.

Eat Across America
In Guy Fieri's own words, his new book /Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives/ is "off the hook". If you like his program of the same name on the Food Network channel, you will like this book. Guy takes you on an all-American road trip to 60 of the diners, drive-ins and dives he's visited on his program. He gives a history of each restaurant and a recipe adapted from one of that restaurant's signature dishes. There are a few of the usual diner recipes like meat loaf and coconut cream pie, but there are more unique recipes like Benny's Mofongo and Pete's Rubbed and Almost Fried Turkey Sandwiches. Recipes span the categories from Breakfast to Dessert. A number of the restaurants are right here in Northern California, including Duarte's Tavern in Pescadero, The Original Falafel's Drive-In in San Jose, and Squeeze In in Sacramento.

The address for each restaurant is included, so if I ever make that cross-country driving trip I've been dreaming of, this book is going with me and I plan to eat my way across America!

Reviewed by Sharon LeBrun

Diners, Drive Inns and Dives
Love the book. Purchased one for myself and one for a gift. I plan on taking it with us on a trip we have planned. The gift was a big hit. He likes to go to the places in the book whenever possible. I am anxious to try some of the recipes.

Rifts Mercenaries: A Giant Sourcebook for Rifts

Product Details
Amazon Sales Rank: #363865 in Books
Published on: 1994-09
Original language: English
Number of items: 1
Binding: Paperback
160 pages

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Customer Reviews
A solid sourcebook with good potential
Mercenaries gives the GM an outline of what merc companies are like in Rifts North America and gives you some new OCCs and (of course!) a lot of new hardware, including some pretty new things, like ships, retrofitted SDC weapons, and ultra-cheap power armor. It's not just new Wilk's, Triax, and NG product lines.

The character classes fill out the basic set pretty well: we now have forgers, spies, and bounty hunters, to name a couple, and while I have yet to put one of those OCCs through a campaign, I think they look pretty good. The Coalition military OCCs in the original Rifts book were very limited, and this gives you some needed depth.

My biggest gripe is the big mercenary companies that they profile. As they did with Carnivals in World Book I, or with spy organizations in Ninjas and Superspies, Palladium presents a point-based system for designing mercenary companies. They also give you about 5 of the chief mercenary companies in North America as example units. I think that some of them get pretty cheesy, especially when some of the chief NPCs for those merc companies cross-over from other Palladium games, such as a couple super-heroes from Heroes Unlimited, and a ninja (who is a mega-damage creature!) from Ninjas and Superspies. Yes, the nature of Rifts lets you blend many things into your campaigns, and that's cool, but if you abuse it, the system is no longer a tight story but a random pastiche of leftovers from other campaigns.

But a GM is not forced to use those things, and I would definitely edit the merc companies before placing one in one of my campaigns. Otherwise, this sourcebook is a good return to the atmosphere of the first few Rifts books, with dusty adventurers and gritty frontier towns. I like it a lot.

Good but not good enough
Rifts Mercenaries would have been good if it wasn't for the numerous amounts of mercenary non player characters. Their were too many of these, everything else including the character classes, weapons, mercenary group creation guidelines were excellent including Naruni Enterprises, Golden Age Weaponsmiths, Wellington Industries, Iron Heart Armaments, Smuggler O.C.C., Special Forces O.C.C. etc. Overall get this book if your a tech-head and like mercenaries, but if your looking for something more in-depth and adventurous get Rifts:Canada or the Siege on Tolkeen series.

Possibly the best book if you have all the others
This book is a great book, However, you should nnot consider buying this unless you have a fair selection of worldbooks etc. It has some excelent adventure ideas and is a quick way to obtain easy money (although this is not neccesarily good). It does have some equipment that is too good (mecha-knight power armour) but gm should use their common sense and not allow such vehicles to enter the games. Overall definitely worth buying

Alive in Africa: My Journeys on Foot in the Sahara, Rift Valley, and Rain Forest

Product Description

Alive in Africa chronicles author and photographer William F. Wheeler's exceptional journeys on foot through a continent of great extremes—from the Sahara desert to the grasslands of the Great Rift Valley, to the Congo rainforest. Illustrated with his stunning images, this elegantly written book takes us back to a bygone age when explorers traveled without GPS or satellite phones.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Product Details
Amazon Sales Rank: #466466 in Books
Published on: 2008-09-02
Original language: English
Number of items: 1
Binding: Hardcover
288 pages

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Editorial Reviews
From the Inside Flap
One day while at his office desk, William Wheeler asked himself, “If anything was possible, what would I do, regardless of the risk?” He picked up a Post-it and, with hardly a thought, wrote, “Cross the Sahara desert by camel, travel on horseback among the wild animals of East Africa, and live in the rain forest with pygmies.”
And that is just what he did. Alive in Africa chronicles Wheeler’s exceptional journeys through three regions of a “continent of great extremes”—the Sahara desert, the Rift Valley, and the Congo rain forest. Lavishly illustrated with the author’s stunning color photos of the landscape and desert nomads, Maasai warriors, and Efe pygmies, this beautifully written book transports us back to the nineteenth century, when the explorers Wheeler emulated on his own excursions had no contact with the “civilized” world.
These journeys left Wheeler with a deep sense of humility and an enlightened awe for the beauty of the world all around. The tribes and cultures he encountered imparted a greater compassion for our common human condition. Finally, alone in the vast wilderness of deserts, forests, and grasslands, Wheeler came closer to
his spiritual center and the feeling of being truly, unequivocally alive. And that, he discovered, was what he was searching for all along.

From the Back Cover
"Africa was a natural choice for me. A continent of great extremes, it contained the world’s largest desert, vast untouched rain forests, hunter-gatherers who lived nearly uninfluenced by the outside world, and exotic wild animals left over from the Pleistocene found nowhere else on earth. Human life began in Africa, and only in Africa was it possible to sense what life was like for the first people, living on foot among lions, elephants, and other dangerous creatures.
In the Sahara I was beaten into submission by the wind and sun. Nights brought an end to the suffering, and in the crystalline depths of the dark universe it seemed possible to reach out and touch God. It was the hidden evil in my guide’s agenda that tested me to the limit, in an escalating battle of two indomitable wills.
The tropical rain forest was an immense sea of sweltering vegetation, a riotous explosion in which life was constantly being created, mutated, and destroyed. In the deep silence of the forest, giant trees and tannic streams seemed alive with spirits, as if time had been rolled back ten thousand years.
Walking with only a spear across the grasslands of East Africa’s Great Rift Valley quickened my wits and refined my adrenaline; life became an intense game of Russian roulette in the bush.” — from the Prologue

About the Author


William F. Wheeler, MD, is the author and photographer of Efe Pygmies: Archers of the African Rain Forest. His photos have appeared in Conde Nast Traveler, Outside, and Sierra, and more than 5,000 are on permanent display in the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. He lives in Solana Beach, California.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Customer Reviews
A definite don't miss...
I was ecstatic to receive this book to review. On camel through the Sahara, on horseback through the Rift Valley and on foot into the rainforest. What a perfect book for the armchair adventurer/traveler! Like another reviewer I have to start by commenting on the appearance of the book first. I cannot remember ever having read an adult book where so much care was invested in the books appearance. The photographs were incomparable, my only complaint in that regard being that I wish they were printed on glossier paper, that being said I understand why a consistent paper type was maintained through the book. The pencil sketches were exquisite and the faint design included on all the pages gave me a feeling of reading an actual journal more than a book. I only wish more publishers recognized the need for "atmosphere" in a book.

The actual writing was a bit more varied. I felt that the 3 stories, and each was a very separate event, had a very different quality. The second was better than the first and the third better than the second. Sadly, as the quality of the stories improved, they grew shorter. The book begins with his journey on camel through the Sahara. In fact, it begins with a tragedy that unfortunately, colored my perception of that first journey. In addition, the author seemed to focus much of his writing in the first tale on the bad experiences he suffered with his guide. It was as if much of the journey was sacrificed in telling the reader in painful detail just how rotten a bad guide could make a trip rather than focusing on the more positive aspects. The second tale, his trip through the Rift Valley, also ended on a sad note but did include more information on what taking the trip was actually like. I was somewhat discouraged by the time I reached his story of traveling through the rainforest but was instead pleasantly surprised to discover that he finally hit his stride and was bringing the reader along this time. His descriptions were well-written and detailed enough that I could easily imagine myself there. Again though, as this was the shortest of the tales, I felt a bit cheated.

Overall it is a definite keeper and no lover of travel stories should miss it. The good outweighs the bad. I will say though that some of what was written by the author regarding the author, the constant amusement at his native guides fear of animals he had never seen before, the cavalier exposure of his animals to known fatal diseases fully understanding what would likely happen, and several other small incidents left me with the inkling suspicion that perhaps, the author wasn't a very nice guy. Likely, better editing would have avoided that, I'm not sure. My hope is that I am wrong. Regardless though, I do encourage everyone to read this book if for no other reason than to better understand what we are losing.

A Last Great Adventurer!
This book is a masterpiece showing how the human spirit can be unleashed when someone has the courage to strike out on an untrodden path to realize their life's dream. It is sure to become a classic!

Bill Green

A story within a story
I met William's wife Linda on a flight in July '08 and I learned about William passing in June '08. Linda was so proof of him and his journeys, I couldn't wait to get this book in September. Amazing person with such an amazing life. My best to Linda.

Golf:: The Best Instruction Book Ever!

Product Description
Want simple tips to help smash it past your pals? Want to know how to generate the most power from your swing, put it close with irons, and stop three-putting? GOLF Magazine's Top 100 Teachers combine their knowledge to help you get your game back in shape with their first book, "The Best Instruction Book Ever!"



This book would include the simple, direct and helpful tips that make the YOUR GAME section in GOLF Magazine the most popular part of the magazine. The book will be concentrated into different key areas: Driving, Iron Play, Chipping, Putting, Fault Fixes, Trouble Shots. Stunning photography from the world's best golf instruction photographers would give the book an extra edge in the marketplace as well as three dimensional diagrams which take instruction to a new level.




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Product Details
Amazon Sales Rank: #12088 in Books
Brand: Booklegger
Published on: 2007-10-23
Original language: English
Number of items: 1
Binding: Hardcover
192 pages
Features
Hard Cover
GOLF Magazine's Top 100 Teachers show you the fastest way to shoot lower scores

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Customer Reviews
Very Easy to Use
I found the book very informative with good figures and explanations. The only drawback is the format trying to include many different trainer's hints after each chapter. Some of these, although useful, did not seem to match the topic discussed as well as they should.

I am glad I bought it.

The Best Instruction Book Ever!
Well done, Golf Magazine! I have been enjoying reading this book very much and I've been gleaning many helpful tips and ideas for improving my game. The presentation and layout of the book are very well done and the content is exceptional. I will be using this book for a long time to come and I'm very happy to add it to my library of golf instructional books.

Mediocre and not systematic
This book is comprised of tips from the top instructors in the country. However, this is a more of an annual for the Golf Magazine by reproducing the 'tips' that were published from the prior year. The title does not live up to its hyper or its name.

It is organized well and the short bullet format and clear illustrations are good.

However, this is not a system upon which you should base your learning. Different 'tips' may not work for a particular style of swing.

If you are one who learns from 'tips' AND you don't subscribe to the magazine, get this book.

If you want to learn something from scratch or are a routine/average hacker, stay away. You should adopt any one of the dozens of 'systems of instruction' and stick with one.

The following is a book of a similar genre covering tips to play better, not a system.

Breaking 100, 90, 80: Taking Your Game to the Next Level with the Best Teachers in Golf

VERDICT:

For most golfers, I do not recommend this book.