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Rating: 
Summary: This book is filled with useful info...
Review: I found this guide to be pretty good. It's a no-frills, easy-to-follow book. It summarizes the neighborhoods briefly, but I don't know how much has changed since it was published a year and half ago. For someone like me, who knew nothing about LA before reading this, this book is a good introduction to the area.
Rating: 
Summary: Very comprehensive, but somewhat left-learning
Review: I picked up this book from my local library. A good overview of various places to visit in the Los Angeles area, but from almost the beggining I could tell what Mr. Dickey's political leaning is. In his media listings he lists Fox News as "providing a right-wing slant on the day's events.", but no such left-wing qualifier for CNN. Again in the Radio stations list, KFI 640 is described as "Tub-thumping talk radio, mostly with a far-right slant.", but KCRW 89.9 is described as "One of the country's better NPR affliates". Other examples are his distribes against Harrison Gray Otis "the arch-conservative publisher" who started the Los Angeles Times in 1881 (accordding to Dickey the LA Times "changed course dramatically" in 1960 when Otis Chandler took over the paper and "rejected its provincial conservatism") and of course Richard Nixon. Once you get past all of this, the info is actually quite good. I've been to many places around the US and have read many tour guides about them, but this book is at times a tour guide wrapped in DNC talking point memos. For a travel guide just give the facts about the place you're writting about, not the 'facts as you see them'.
Rating: 
Summary: Essential.
Review: LA can be a daunting city to visit, but this book makes travelling around so much easier. If you are not planning to hire a car when you are there, this book really is essential. It has good maps of Downtown and Hollywood, and very useful maps of the main bus routes. The commentaries are really helpful and quite entertaining, although they can sometimes sound slightly pretentious. Nonetheless, I used the book every single day and would have been lost without it. A must have.P.S. Make sure you take in a Dodgers game when you're there - you won't be disappointed!
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