Rating: 
Summary: Great city! Mediocre book.
Review: makes you want to take your next trip to D.C. with book in hand as your tour guide. I especially enjoyed his personifications of the monuments and his "if these people were alive today, what would they think" take on the current condition of our nation's capital.
Rating: 
Summary: funny, funny reading
Review: makes you want to take your next trip to D.C. with book in hand as your tour guide. I especially enjoyed his personifications of the monuments and his "if these people were alive today, what would they think" take on the current condition of our nation's capital.
Rating: 
Summary: Great concept, slim execution
Review: This book is part of the "Crown Journeys" series, in which the publisher convinces local literary lights to write a book to show armchair tourits around their 'native' town. So Christopher Buckley, former White House staffer, seems like a natural for a walking tour of Washington D.C.It seems painfully obvious on reading the result, however, that Buckley is writing for hire. There's nothing actually wrong with it; Buckley is his usual entertaining self. BUT he doesn't have much original to say and he really seems to be padding to reach the book's finish at a scant 143 small pages of text. You don't need him to tell you what there is to see in walking from the Capital to the Washington Monument, for example. Surely Buckley has some favorite neighborhoods or haunts that you can't get from Fodors or the like, but he is keeping them to himself. The best parts are in Walk 3, when he talks about his days in the Old Executive Office Building, and takes a commercial walking tour of the old Lafayette Square neighborhood. But I can't bring myself to give him credit for the Lafayette Square bits, as he is so clearly just repeating the stories of his tourguide. Go on THAT tour (the guide's name is Anthony Pitch) rather than fork over the big bucks for this little book. P.S. If you need an actual 'guide book' - addresses, phone, hours of operation, that sort of thing - this is DEFINITELY NOT for you; it's just not that kind of book. In fact, since the book has no index, it's not even possible to look particular things up.
Rating:
Summary: Great concept, slim execution
Review: This book is part of the "Crown Journeys" series, in which the publisher convinces local literary lights to write a book to show armchair tourits around their 'native' town. So Christopher Buckley, former White House staffer, seems like a natural for a walking tour of Washington D.C. It seems painfully obvious on reading the result, however, that Buckley is writing for hire. There's nothing actually wrong with it; Buckley is his usual entertaining self. BUT he doesn't have much original to say and he really seems to be padding to reach the book's finish at a scant 143 small pages of text. You don't need him to tell you what there is to see in walking from the Capital to the Washington Monument, for example. Surely Buckley has some favorite neighborhoods or haunts that you can't get from Fodors or the like, but he is keeping them to himself. The best parts are in Walk 3, when he talks about his days in the Old Executive Office Building, and takes a commercial walking tour of the old Lafayette Square neighborhood. But I can't bring myself to give him credit for the Lafayette Square bits, as he is so clearly just repeating the stories of his tourguide. Go on THAT tour (the guide's name is Anthony Pitch) rather than fork over the big bucks for this little book. P.S. If you need an actual 'guide book' - addresses, phone, hours of operation, that sort of thing - this is DEFINITELY NOT for you; it's just not that kind of book. In fact, since the book has no index, it's not even possible to look particular things up.
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