Rating: 
Summary: Wright idea, Wrong approach...
Review: A useful subject, but Mr. Wright failed to do his homework. Any guidebook without a map to pinpoint locations discussed is frustrating; one which limits itself to cursory descriptions and incomplete addresses is MOST annoying and inconvenient--especially when so many of the monasteries listed are in remote locations, in the countryside or in villages so small they are identified on very few maps. Most of Wright's descriptions are so terse that one has no idea what region a guest house is located in, and only the barest of details about the facilities and services offered. Wright also neglects to provide any details related to costs or to access (i.e., nearest train, bus services, etc.), so a reader has to spend a great deal of time and possibly money, only to risk discovering that a monastery one is considering is beyond one's budget, itinerary, and/or is inaccessible via the means of transportation available to him/her. The book COULD have been a great resource, if the author would have put more effort into it. Instead, one can probably do better to do one's own research on the Web and investigating other materials. One positive comment: Wright's identification of Web pages and email addresses for several entries IS useful.
Rating: 
Summary: Europe's Monastery and Convent Guesthouses
Review: A waste of money as a travel guide to monastery and convent guesthouses. Travel guide? It doesn't guide one anywhere to any guesthouse.
Rating:
Summary: Europe's Monastery and Convent Guesthouses
Review: A waste of money as a travel guide to monastery and convent guesthouses. Travel guide? It doesn't guide one anywhere to any guesthouse.
Rating:
Summary: Just pulled information from the Internet
Review: Any person with a little time and an Internet connection could have written this book. The book description notes that it gives a "thorough history of Christian monasticism". The thorough history is just what the author could pull from his high-school World Book Encyclopedia. The rest of the book includes repetitive descriptions of the monasteries that shed no particularly interesting information on them. The backpacking author also provides no fascinating tibits of information. I am sure that he had fun travelling through Europe, but I do not think that readers should fund his trip just for a few telephone numbers and email addresses.
Rating: 
Summary: At last!.....A book about Europe's monasteries and convents!
Review: At last! A book about Europe's monasteries and convents! Several years ago, I looked for a "directory type" book of monasteries to stay at in Europe, and unfortunately nothing existed at that time. Just recently though, I came across this book and bought it. It's exactly what I wish I would have had several years ago when I went to Europe. The book is set up nicely, and is very exhaustive in it's coverage. I like both the spiritual aspect of it (i.e. stories about monasticism, encouragement to partake in the daily activities of the monasteries, etc.), as well as the practical aspect (i.e. contact information, brief info about each monastery, etc.). I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is planning on visiting Europe with the intention of spending some time in a spiritual setting. I myself hope I can get to Europe again sometime soon, to visit some of these wonderful places!!! Bob M.
Rating:
Summary: At last!.....A book about Europe's monasteries and convents!
Review: At last! A book about Europe's monasteries and convents! Several years ago, I looked for a "directory type" book of monasteries to stay at in Europe, and unfortunately nothing existed at that time. Just recently though, I came across this book and bought it. It's exactly what I wish I would have had several years ago when I went to Europe. The book is set up nicely, and is very exhaustive in it's coverage. I like both the spiritual aspect of it (i.e. stories about monasticism, encouragement to partake in the daily activities of the monasteries, etc.), as well as the practical aspect (i.e. contact information, brief info about each monastery, etc.). I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is planning on visiting Europe with the intention of spending some time in a spiritual setting. I myself hope I can get to Europe again sometime soon, to visit some of these wonderful places!!! Bob M.
Rating:
Summary: Not a travel book
Review: Do not buy this as a travel book unless you have a strong intrest in joining the proceedings. It is NOT for the casual tourist. It should NOT be classified as a travel book.I returned it.
Rating: 
Summary: good travel book (with a few exceptions)
Review: I found Mr. Wright's book to be a good travel and resource book, with a few exceptions. Here were the positive's and negatives: Positive
1) great background info on monasteries
2) lots of contact info on monasteries
3) good website resources listed at back of book
4) nice layout
5) both practical and spiritual Negative
1) no maps
2) not enough in-depth info about each monastery
Rating:
Summary: good travel book (with a few exceptions)
Review: I found Mr. Wright's book to be a good travel and resource book, with a few exceptions. Here were the positive's and negatives: Positive
1) great background info on monasteries
2) lots of contact info on monasteries
3) good website resources listed at back of book
4) nice layout
5) both practical and spiritual Negative
1) no maps
2) not enough in-depth info about each monastery
Rating:
Summary: This book is a good start but not more.
Review: If you don't know anything at all about European monasticism, this book is a good introduction to bigger monasteries, the different orders and Catholic culture.
If you're backpacking through Europe, this book has quite a few addresses that can be quite helpful. In all of this, the book succeeds quite well. Given the dearth - to my knowledge - of books on the subject, for this I think 3 stars are in order.
Sadly, the book is far, far from being comprehensive. I was stunned to see several abbeys excluded that clearly belong in the book. Schoeftlarn and Taize to mention but two. Additionally abbeys are confused. The Benedictine monastery in Engelberg is *not* in Sarnen, whatever the book may say. But there is a Benedictine abbey in Sarnen, that the book omits. I can't help but wonder whether this book wasn't compiled by means of surfing the web and using google. The ommissions are such that one cannot believe that Kevin Wright actually asked around in Europe for addresses in any systemaic fashion. The book can only be described as shoddy.
The book fails in another way. It reads as if it were extracts from tour guides thrown together. In no description are the history or the specialities of the various monasteries really fleshed out; one gets the sense that Wright is an outsider who does not have the acumen or cultural education to do the subject matter justice.
Mount Athos, the heart of Orthodox Christianity is accorded a scant 6 pages, which the author admits are taken from a website. Any serious author would have asked Orthodox priests about this World Heritage site.
Coming from the milieu Wright describes, I can imagine that many of the monks and nuns living in the places Wright describes would look down on his book as the intellectual equivalent of the American parvenus who try to "do Europe in ten days." Given the shoddiness of the rest of the work, I just can't give the book more than 2 stars.
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