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Rating: 
Summary: This is drive-by, useless travel writing at its worst.
Review: Author Lisa Shaw lives in New Hampshire. And she owns a company that publishes marketing materials. That should have been my tipoff to avoid "Vermont: Off the Beaten Path".
Shaw's guide reads like a promotional tract from someone who took a few days to spin through the state, eat at roadside diners and jot down cute facts from historical markers.
My wife and I learned nothing about where we were going from her sketchy, vapid musings about the towns she only saw long enough to eat lunches in.
And to judge from the way Shaw raved about each place she snacked at, we figured owners gave her free meals and slipped a $50 under the table.
She spends four paragraphs telling us about the Snack Shack in Barre, but only three telling us about the state capitol in Montpelier.
In Windsor, Vermont, we learn only that there is a Thai restaurant. What distinguishes this place so much that one should travel perhaps thousands of miles to eat there? Well, Shaw notes, as if revealing a unique custom known only to native Vermonters, "Place your order at the window, sit down at one of the picnic tables inside, and the dishes will be brought to you, as they're cooked in the order they're received."
Shaw has a knack for saying nothing in many words. But I should have known; that's the mark of an advertising copywrighter. She exhaustively promotes places where one can get a "handmade burger", as if they're unknown in Des Moines.
As for sights, Shaw wastes pages telling us about such gems as the vintage Eureka Schoolhouse, which, she notes, has a telephone and space heater inside. "The roof looks absolutely ancient," she breathlessly describes. After extolling the school's interior she ends by mentioning that it isn't open to the public, "but feel free to walk around and look."
In Chester she tells us to look at a building reading "PUBLIC TOMB 1850". That's it. And there's the abandoned copper mine she suggests we visit, because we can "...see what looks like a heap of copper-colored dirt...."
Shaw's ability to highlight the mundane is world class. Worth an award from the Clios, the advertising Oscars, I think. At one restaurant she writes, "Classical music played throughout our lunch." At another, "...water and coffee are available", and at a third, "Blanche personally takes your order and then goes back and cooks it." I guess I have a little Vermont near my home, too, if these things are the measure of the state.
Moreover, the book's layout is abysmal. It has no maps, just outlines of regions with numbers plastered around, which are supposed to correspond with the "unique" sights she highlights in each section, except those numbers are never used in the chapters themselves.
She appears to have attempted to structure the book's chapters as a series of tours, but achieves only a jumble of confusing point-to-point anecdotes, which we found impossible to untangle.
"Vermont, Off The Beaten Path" does have one redeeming quality about it. If you are a true adventurer you can read this travel guide and rest assured you will still be surprised at what you find wherever you go in Vermont, because Lisa Shaw won't have revealed any clues.
Rating:
Summary: misses the complexity
Review: I bought this book hoping it would tell me things I didn't know or at least things I knew presented in a new light. At the time I was doing a lot of Vermont travel. I found this book quite useless, and was put off by its dismissive tone. Vermont is a complex place, but you would not know that by reading this.
Rating:
Summary: Off The Beaten Path But Not All There
Review: I have used several of "The Off The Beaten Path" books over the years and have found them for the most part to be accurate. However, I was greatly dissapointed in the Vermont one. I tried for hours to find several locations only to be told by the "locals" that there was no such place or that the structure had been moved several years ago. Some locations were found right off but I found that I have been spoiled but the authors of the New Hampshire book and their accuracy. I have noted that the Rogers are doing the updates. GREAT, now I'll find the places I want to see.
Rating:
Summary: Off The Beaten Path But Not All There
Review: I have used several of "The Off The Beaten Path" books over the years and have found them for the most part to be accurate. However, I was greatly dissapointed in the Vermont one. I tried for hours to find several locations only to be told by the "locals" that there was no such place or that the structure had been moved several years ago. Some locations were found right off but I found that I have been spoiled but the authors of the New Hampshire book and their accuracy. I have noted that the Rogers are doing the updates. GREAT, now I'll find the places I want to see.
Rating:
Summary: Off The Beaten Path But Not All There
Review: I have used several of "The Off The Beaten Path" books over the years and have found them for the most part to be accurate. However, I was greatly dissapointed in the Vermont one. I tried for hours to find several locations only to be told by the "locals" that there was no such place or that the structure had been moved several years ago. Some locations were found right off but I found that I have been spoiled but the authors of the New Hampshire book and their accuracy. I have noted that the Rogers are doing the updates. GREAT, now I'll find the places I want to see.
Rating: 
Summary: Sounds like she dumped him
Review: Only someone with a personal vendetta against th eauthor would go to such lengths to trash someone's work. If you don't like it, just say so and move on. And by the way, bitter folks like you should be vacationing in Detroit, not Vermont!
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