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Rating: 
Summary: Didn't work for me.
Review: "Traces of Thoreau" is a pretentious, self-congratulatory narrative, and rather a bore as a result. For this reviewer, it failed both as a personal story and as a descriptive work about Cape Cod. The author just isn't as compelling to us as he clearly finds himself. (I strongly disagree with the editorial reviewer who said that Mr. Mulloney largely "absents himself from the narrative." It just isn't so.) Although he fancies himself a modern "H.T.," there's nothing particularly insightful about Mr. Mulloney's walk on the beach, which unfortunately leaves Cape Cod shortchanged as a subject. The book does contain some informative passages about natural history, but there are some great guidebooks that are much better in that regard. This book would best have been kept as a personal journal. You know, the kind that gets tossed out when it is reread it in a few years and found embarrassing even to the author. For really fun and insightful travel/nature writing, try Bill Bryson's "A Walk in the Woods"!
Rating:
Summary: Didn't work for me.
Review: "Traces of Thoreau" is a pretentious, self-congratulatory narrative, and rather a bore as a result. For this reviewer, it failed both as a personal story and as a descriptive work about Cape Cod. The author just isn't as compelling to us as he clearly finds himself. (I strongly disagree with the editorial reviewer who said that Mr. Mulloney largely "absents himself from the narrative." It just isn't so.) Although he fancies himself a modern "H.T.," there's nothing particularly insightful about Mr. Mulloney's walk on the beach, which unfortunately leaves Cape Cod shortchanged as a subject. The book does contain some informative passages about natural history, but there are some great guidebooks that are much better in that regard. This book would best have been kept as a personal journal. You know, the kind that gets tossed out when it is reread it in a few years and found embarrassing even to the author. For really fun and insightful travel/nature writing, try Bill Bryson's "A Walk in the Woods"!
Rating: 
Summary: Perfect Summer Beach Reading!
Review: As I sat on the ferry steaming across to Martha'a Vineyard, I could not help but constantly gaze to the Northeast and attempt to see past the horizon to the Cape Cod beaches on which Mulloney was strolling. Admittedly, I have never read a page of Thoreau and I embarked on reading this book with some serious trepidation. However, I was more than pleased when I found myself along side him, watching the waves crash along the seashore, listening to the locals tell tales of how it used to be, and generally feeling right at home, even though I had never visited a single place he was describing. And to top it all off, his references to Thoreau ( or H.T. as Mulloney calls him) were not only clear and pertinent, they were solid enough that I now feel as if I am some sort of junior varsity expert on the Concord native. This is perfect summer New England beach reading. It's also perfect winter New England reading for when you're wishing you were at the beach. And it's perfec! t Autumn reading, for that was the season when Mulloney embarked upon his retracing of Thoreau's steps down America's outer rim. And I suppose I must say it's perfect Spring reading, for when you are preparing for the summer's events. "Traces of Thoreau" is summer escapist non-fiction reading at its best. It is a timeless work, to be appreciated for summers and summers to come. Enjoy.
Rating: 
Summary: Outstanding and erudite
Review: Boston area readers should check out a review by a local columnist for a Dedham paper that in itself is a masterpiece in that it places Thoreau's book among the greats of late 1800s.
Rating:
Summary: Take a walk on the ocean side
Review: Boston resident Stephen Mulloney is positioned at one of Life's Crossroads when he receives Henry David Thoreau's book, "Cape Cod," as a gift. He approaches the book reluctantly at first as he remembers hearing that "the author was a sour curmudgeon," for Mulloney "had enough live curmudgeons to deal with." But Thoreau's descriptions of walking through the Cape towns strike a chord with Mulloney -- so much so, that he decides to recreate and follow the naturalist's treks along the outer Cape banks.
And so the adventure begins. Mulloney isn't a plan-ahead kind of guy, which gets him into a bit of a bind when he tries to find last-minute lodging on Labor Day weekend. He even forgets to take drinking water along as he hikes. These oversights seem minor as he discovers for himself the beauty of the sand, the ocean, and the flora and fauna (including humans) he encounters on the way. Readers learn about this dynamic landscape from the author's personal, conversational manner. You can almost feel the warm sand scrunching between your toes. Mulloney miscalculates and doesn't have enough time to complete the journey in one stint; he has to return over Columbus Day weekend to finish the path of the original walk.
David Gessner similarly tells of his own re-enactment of Thoreau's on-foot Cape travels in a section of "A Wild Rank Place: One Year on Cape Cod." The two men cover the same territory within a few years of each other and find slightly different (and mostly positive) experiences. Both accounts are worth reading, even if you're not the hiking type or even a Thoreauvian. The dual conclusion is clear: When you're walking, you see a more vivid Cape Cod than the one you can see from a car window.
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