Cohort Analysis in Social Research: Beyond the Identification Problem (Asi Series. Series F)

Book Description

This book provides a language and a set of tools for finding bounds on the predictions that social and behavioral scientists can logically make from nonexperimental and experimental data. The economist Charles Manski draws on examples from criminology, demography, epidemiology, social psychology, and sociology as well as economics to illustrate this language and to demonstrate the broad usefulness of the tools.

There are many traditional ways to present identification problems in econometrics, sociology, and psychometrics. Some of these are primarily statistical in nature, using concepts such as flat likelihood functions and nondistinct parameter estimates. Manski's strategy is to divorce identification from purely statistical concepts and to present the logic of identification analysis in ways that are accessible to a wide audience in the social and behavioral sciences. In each case, problems are motivated by real examples with real policy importance, the mathematics is kept to a minimum, and the deductions on identifiability are derived giving fresh insights.

Manski begins with the conceptual problem of extrapolating predictions from one population to some new population or to the future. He then analyzes in depth the fundamental selection problem that arises whenever a scientist tries to predict the effects of treatments on outcomes. He carefully specifies assumptions and develops his nonparametric methods of bounding predictions. Manski shows how these tools should be used to investigate common problems such as predicting the effect of family structure on children's outcomes and the effect of policing on crime rates.

Successive chapters deal with topics ranging from the use of experiments to evaluate social programs, to the use of case-control sampling by epidemiologists studying the association of risk factors and disease, to the use of intentions data by demographers seeking to predict future fertility. The book closes by examining two central identification problems in the analysis of social interactions: the classical simultaneity problem of econometrics and the reflection problem faced in analyses of neighborhood and contextual effects.

Customer Reviews:

My book review previously published in American Journal of Sociology.......2005-10-30

Identification Problems in the Social Sciences is a landmark book in social science methodology. No sociologist who takes statistical methods seriously can afford to ignore it. While many other statistical books teach readers how to apply advanced techniques, this book was written with a different objective: it pushes the reader to think hard about what can be learned from observed data alone and in doing so sets the upper limits of statistical reasoning when no or very weak assumptions are invoked.

To empirical researchers like myself who have heavily relied on statistical models for inference, reading this book can be both educational and humbling. It is educational in that the book teaches new ways of setting nonparametric bounds for quantities of interest. Yet it is humbling because Manski shows that the more powerful and sharper statistical results we have become accustomed to seeing and producing essentially depend on stronger assumptions. Thus, Manski forcefully shows the classical tradeoff between robustness and statistical power, although the focus here is not on efficiency but on identifying power. When observed data are thin, it takes strong assumptions to yield sharp results. There is no free information in statistics. Either you collect it, or you assume it.

Many sociologists are already familiar with Manski's earlier methodological contributions, a few of which appeared in sociological journals. An accomplished econometrician who often proves theorems, Manski has stayed a close friend of sociology and sets out to orient this book to a sociological audience. The book is written in plain and lucid English, augmented with relatively simple formulas based on properties of conditional probabilities and inequalities. No high level mathematics is required to read the book. A few simple but real examples in the areas of sociology, demography, criminology, education, and economics greatly facilitate the reading.

By "identification problems" Manski means something broader than the difficulty of identifying simultaneous structural equations. Identification problems are those problems that would not disappear even if the researcher could eliminate sampling error by increasing the sample size to infinity. Thus, Manski isolates a class of problems that are difficult to deal with not because of inadequate data points but because observed data reveal weak information. Besides the classical case of simultaneity, Manski discusses the problems of extrapolation, selection, mixing, response-based sampling, prediction-from-intention, and reflection. Each of these topics is covered in a separate chapter. Although the chapters are closely related and should be read as a whole, some readers will be tempted to read only the chapters most relevant to their interest. If you do so, keep in mind that Chapter 2 on the selection problem and Chapter 7 on the reflection problem are worth reading for all sociology readers.

Manski has worked on the identification problems for some time, and the book draws results from his earlier publications. Sophisticated readers will want to read his other publications that have appeared in journals. However, it would be a mistake to assume that this book is merely a collection of Manski's articles published elsewhere. The book is tightly integrated with a common concern and a common approach. Throughout the book, Manski takes a distinct philosophical stand: he begins with a discussion of what can be learned from the worst-case scenario and then gradually introduces weak assumptions to improve identification. This overtly conservative approach is highly commendable and should be adopted by others in both the teaching and the application of statistical methods.

Manski's solutions to the identification problems are innovative. He breaks away from the conventional wisdom that only point estimates are of interest. Instead, he utilizes available information to furnish nonparametric bounds. Although the bounds may appear too wide to some readers at first sight, I have found them to be quite informative. One needs to keep in mind that Manski is able to bound estimates with no or very weak assumptions. Moreover, he demonstrates that he can substantially tighten bounds at the expense of additional assumptions.

One message that the book clearly conveys is the importance of nonparametric statistics. I concur that sociologists should welcome the new development in nonparametric statistics and make more use of nonparametric methods in their empirical work. However, I am afraid that sociology's road to nonparametric statistics will be bumpy for the time being, as at least two obstacles need to be removed. First, empirical researchers need to make a cultural shift toward presenting results in unconventional forms such as graphics, bounds, and conditional estimates. Second, methodologists (econometricians and statisticians included) need to make nonparametric methods more practical and more routinized. I have in mind the difficulties of running out of cases or making presentations unduly complicated as one adds more dimensions of control.

Fortunately, Manski's book gives us good directions to follow to solve various practical problems in the future. The book is not a technical manual, but a new philosophy of doing statistics in the social sciences. Regardless of your predispositions, Identification Problems in the Social Sciences is a great book to read. Even if you disagree with Manski's solutions, you will still admire the book's elegance and logical clarity. I highly recommend the book.

Little great book.......2005-01-31

(From the back cover) "This book provides a language and a set of tools for finding bounds on the predictions that social and behavioural scientists can logically make from nonexperimental and experimental data. (...) draws on examples from criminology, demography, epidemiology, social psychology, and sociology as well economics to illustrate this language and to demonstrate the broad usefulness of the tools".

This is a little brilliant book on the relation between data, the use of assumptions, and identification of parameters or distributions that social scientists may be interested in. In the words of the author, "this book examines the conditional predictions that can and cannot be made given specified assumptions and empirical evidence". The beauty of this book is indeed its emphasis on the link between maintained assumptions and features of a population that can be identified. Manski has spent a large part of his career emphasizing that results derived from strong arbitrary assumptions do not have much scientific value. In some cases, calculating BOUNDS for parameters of interest can be much better than having a point estimate obtained by "denying" lack of knowledge of important aspects of reality. One lesson you will derive from this book is "we need to develop a greater tolerance for ambiguity".

Here is an example of the many empirical problems dealt with in the book (which is mostly methodological, and hence technical enough to be not suited for a lay reader). Suppose you have a sample of homeless individuals and you want to study the reasons why they may still be homeless some months afterwards. However, months later you only have information on a subset of your initial sample. Without making any assumptions about what causes individuals to exit your sample, what can you learn? Can you learn more if you make assumptions on the causes that lead individuals out of your sample?

Another reviewer has described this book as an introduction to "nonparametric estimation". This is susprising and totally misleading, as there is close to NOTHING in this book about estimation, parametric or otherwise. This book is about identification. That is, the question addressed here is always something like the following: suppose that you have perfect knowledge of certain features of the data, and suppose that you are interested in certain other features of the data. What kind of assumptions do you need to make in order to be able to learn about these other features? How does your ability to learn change when you change the assumptions and/or the initial information? This book will NOT tell you how to do the estimation, or how to estimate variances and confidence intervals. Identification will only tell you if you CAN estimate something, but it does not tell you HOW you can actually estimate it. If you are looking for an introduction to nonparametric ESTIMATION, you should probably look at Pagan and Ullah, which is an excellent introduction.

The book is not too technical, but it does require some prior knowledge of math and especially probability.

Great introduction to nonparametric estimation........2000-06-22

This book is a nonparametric introduction written for social sciences students. This implies that it's light on the mathmetical side. But the nonparametrics are easy to understand anyway. This is a highly recommended book for those who want to formalize their thoughts and want to test that model with real life data but find it difficult to apply classical parametric methods.

The Criminal Use Of False Identification: A Summary Report on the Nature, Scope, and Impact of False ID Use in the United States with Recommendations to Combat the Problem: The Report of the F

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The Criminal Use Of False Identification: A Summary Report on the Nature, Scope, and Impact of False ID Use in the United States with Recommendations to Combat the Problem: The Report of the F

Manufacturer: University Press of the Pacific
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Criminology | Crime & Criminals | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

The criminal use of false identification is a national problem with a multi-billion dollar impact on government, business, and the general public. This report of the Federal Advisory Committee on False Identification covers the extent of false ID use in six major problem areas: drug smuggling, illegal immigration, fugitives from justice, fraud against business, fraud against government, and other criminal activity.

How Hysterical: Identification and Resistance in the Bible and Film

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How Hysterical: Identification and Resistance in the Bible and Film
Erin Runions
Manufacturer: Palgrave Macmillan
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Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

How Hysterical reads scenes from the films Light It Up, Remember the Titans, Three Kings, Paris is Burning, Boys Don't Cry, and Magnolia alongside biblical texts from Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Micah, Matthew, and Revelation. An innovation in studies on Bible and film, How Hysterical is less centered on direct citation of the Bible in film than on analyses of hypostasized biblical influence in culture. Here, through accessible engagement with feminist, queer, postcolonial and ideological critical theories, Erin Runions discusses the processes by which biblical and filmic texts can both bolster and disrupt identifications with the norms that drive politics and culture.

Identification problems in the social sciences and everyday life. (Association Lecture).: An article from: Southern Economic Journal

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Identification problems in the social sciences and everyday life. (Association Lecture).: An article from: Southern Economic Journal
Charles F. Manski
Manufacturer: Southern Economic Association
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Binding: Digital

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Book Description

This digital document is an article from Southern Economic Journal, published by Southern Economic Association on July 1, 2003. The length of the article is 5789 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Identification problems in the social sciences and everyday life. (Association Lecture).
Author: Charles F. Manski
Publication: Southern Economic Journal (Refereed)
Date: July 1, 2003
Publisher: Southern Economic Association
Volume: 70 Issue: 1 Page: 11(11)

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Organizational Behavior 2: Essential Theories Of Process And Structure
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Organizational Behavior 2: Essential Theories Of Process And Structure
John B. Miner
Manufacturer: M.E. Sharpe
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Binding: Hardcover

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This outstanding reference book deals with effects of various agricultural practices on ground water quality and usage; and ground water management strategies for protection of ground water affected by agriculture.

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Evaluation of agricultural best-management practices in the Conestoga River headwaters, Pennsylvania : characterization of surface-runoff and ground-water ... management (SuDoc I 19.42/4:93-4119)
U.S. Geological Survey
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Hydrogeology, herbicides and nutrients in ground water and springs, and relation of water quality to land use and agricultural practices near Carlisle, Pennsylvania (SuDoc I 19.42/4:93-4172)
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The Archetype of Pilgrimage: Outer Action with Inner Meaning
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This book was great for information on religious pilgrimages

The Archetype of Pilgrimage: Outer Action with Inner Meaning
Jean D. Clift , and Wallace B. Clift
Manufacturer: Wipf & Stock Publishers
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Binding: Paperback

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Customer Reviews:

This book was great for information on religious pilgrimages.......1999-11-17

I used this book for information on the religious pilgrimage for the traditional japanese voyage on the island of shikoku. The overall info I had accumalated before reading bits and pieces of this book was vague and did not help much. This book helped me a lot when it came to the traditions, motifs, stages, and goals of the pilgrimage

The Fundamentals of Pa Kua Chang: The Methods of Lu Shui-Tien As Taught by Park Bok Nam Vol. II(Fundamentals of Pa Kua Chan (Unique))
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great book

Great Deal!!!

real kung fu - martial arts

Good intro.

Superb introduction into BaGua mechanics

The Fundamentals of Pa Kua Chang: The Methods of Lu Shui-Tien As Taught by Park Bok Nam Vol. II(Fundamentals of Pa Kua Chan (Unique))
Park Bok Nam
Manufacturer: Unique Publications
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Binding: Paperback

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The Whirling Circles of Ba Gua Zhang: The Art and Legends of the Eight Trigram Palm

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Customer Reviews:

great book.......2007-03-08

it is one of the most essential books you should have , it is easy written and easely to study from.

Great Deal!!!.......2007-01-19

Excellent! One of the best guide books on the art of Baguazhang. Also check out the book on the subject by Mr. Liang, Dr. Yang and Mr. Wu. Mr. Wu is my teacher here in RI and is one of the nicest men I have met in the martial arts world. He also very knowledgeable on the subject and has all the proper credentials to back up his teaching skills.
In this particular book though, it takes Baguazhang from a different point of view. It is more like a dance stepping graphic look at the stepping pattern. Which becomes extremely helpful when linked with Mr. Wu's book. The two complement each other really well.
So if you want to nail down the concept of Baguazhang, get the two volumes of this book and the book on Baguazhang by Mr. Liang. Dr. Yang and Mr. Wen-Ching Wu.

real kung fu - martial arts.......2006-09-04

what a humble and truthful insight to the life and art of a real Chinese martial art master! love it.

Good intro........2005-07-07

Good introduction to Pa Kua. However, there is a lot missing. There is so much more to Pa Kua than what this book covers. It would also benifit greatly to have a video to supplement the illustrations.

Superb introduction into BaGua mechanics.......2004-06-21

~I'm finally glad they got Vol. 1 on this website. I'd written a review for Vol.2 awhile ago, but had to imply that there was a Vol.1 to be read, as well. It's been a while, and others have already gotten to it, but I thought I'd plug in my 2 cents...

WONDERFUL!

In retrospect, there is some mystery here. BaGua, as with many Chinese martial arts styles, is all about your instructor, your instructor's instructor, etc.. Your lineage is key. BaGua has a very complex geneaology, stemming~~ from Dong Hai Chuan (various phonetic spellings) the legendary Grandmaster. In fact, two key branches of BaGua (since Dong Hai Chuan only taught experienced martial artists-- most whom he purportedly defeated in combat) are those that seem very BaGua like, and those that seem Hsing-Yi-ified. Those are my terms. In my experience, you can take the forty or so BaGua styles, and classify them as fairly "pure" BaGua (circular, evasive, fine, intricate), and those that have integreated~~ significant Hsing-Yi principles-- linear, power, direct.

Park Bok Nam's style is more pure BaGua in terms of evasiveness, footwork, and hand-techniques. His teacher, the legendary Lu Shue-Tien, is a bit of an unknown... Even in this book, there is no real claim as to who taught Lu Shue-Tien. Other sources I have speculate...

That being said, this book is a wonderful, detailed work that describes basic techniques-- footwork, some foot-trapping, and elementary strikes down to the~~ smallest level of biomechanics. How to move your feet, knees, pelvis, abdoman, to generate power, for example. In more detail than in any other book on any other style I've ever read. Superb for anyone who is trying to understand the underlying principles of this art, or even for the advanced practitioner trying to compare this or that, or to glean insights.

This is not a forms book. Park Bok Nam gives some simple palm changes that are basically qi gong postures with circle walking. ~~ It's a mechanics book. A superb one.

Finally, the lineage is important. BaGua varies significantly from style to style. The techniques can be dramatically different, as can the mechanics at the more superficial level. But I think from a basic concepts level, the biomechanics are all pretty much the same. So this is an insight into one family, not all. But I think confining it to mechanics kept it manageable, and pure. No hullabaloo or flash. And eminently useful.

Wonderful,~~ clearly written, adequate pictures (get the videos for better illustration of Park's technique). A must for the martial artist.~

The Readers' Choice: 200 Book Club Favorites
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Find Great Books You've Never Heard of!

What Have You Read That's Good ?

Very highly recommended for book enthusiasts.

Buy this one before you go back to the bookstore!

A helpful book, but not for everyone.

The Readers' Choice: 200 Book Club Favorites
Victoria Golden Mcmains
Manufacturer: Harper Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

Here are two hundred reader-tested answers to the question "What have you read that's good?" The Readers' Choice is the first book to feature titles based on the recommendations of numerous book clubs. Victoria McMains has collected two hundred favorites of more than seventy reading groups nationwide, ideal for book group members looking for a "good read," busy people seeking enjoyable books outside the bestseller lists, or anyone who wants to read more but isn't sure where to start.

Combining her skills as a book reveiwer and a veteran book group member, McMains provides brief, captivating profiles of a diverse mix of fiction and nonfiction. There are love stories and war stories, fantasy and political intrigue, biography and nature-and much more. Each profile highlights the unique traits of the book and ends with a few questions for group favorites as well as little-known gems that have been discovered and treasured. Indexes organize the entries by title and subject matter, helping readers find books that appeal to their interest. For anyone wanting to learn the easy essentials of starting a book club, check out McMains's introduction.

Let The Readers Guide help you make the most of the precious time you spend reading?

Customer Reviews:

Find Great Books You've Never Heard of!.......2001-07-15

"What have you read that's good?" We've all asked that question of our best-read friends. Now, The Readers' Choice lets you find out the answer to that question from a variety of book clubs in California, Oregon, Colorado, and New York.

The book is organized to provide around one page (often a little more) on each book. This information includes a brief summary of the book, its appeal, how it differs from the movie (if it is a novel), and the author's background. A section in italics at the end gives you questions to guide a book club discussion or to illuminate your own reading of the book.

In a separate section, Ms. McMains also describes how to start and run a book club, in case that appeals to you. As she points out, you like to visit your friends. A book club can give you more chances to do that, and something new to talk about.

The book has a helpful index so that you can locate books by subject, in order to more quickly locate titles that match your needs. About three-quarters of the books are novels.

Since I read a lot, I assumed that this book would not tell me much. Boy, was I wrong! Of the 200 titles, I had only read 7. I had only heard of another 4 more. So these are books I would never have considered.

As the author points out, these are well-written books that seldom reached a broad audience. They are for people who want high quality writing and thinking.

I checked out the 7 books that I have read, and found the material on them to be accurate and useful. So I have to assume that it is also for the other books on the list.

So I'm looking forward to reading many more outstanding books as a result of this valuable reource.

Since the book clubs who contributed these ideas are mostly in the western United States, you'll find many novels with western themes in them. If you are looking for that, you'll find the book all that much more helpful. If you are not, give one a try. You may find that you like western-oriented books.

If you are already so backlogged with reading that you won't get to another book for some time, obviously this resource won't do you much good.

Do realize that this book was published in mid 2000, and was based on reading that occurred before that. So the offerings will mostly be of books written in 1999 and earlier.

After you finish reading this book, I suggest that you think about why you read. Having understood that, are there other reasons to read? For example, can reading people who express themselves well make you a better communicator?

What Have You Read That's Good ?.......2001-05-31

WHAT HAVE YOU READ THAT'S GOOD?

That's the question outsiders ask book club members that has prompted this collection of favorite books to read.

If you would like to explore the world of fiction and nonfiction books, and don't know what to read, examine this paperback by Victoria Golden Mcmains. She has chaired, since 1977 the Bay Area Book Reviewers Association and has a column published monthly and is also an author with short stories published in literary magazines.

The book is more than a start, it is a treasure! She endorses book clubs, the benefits and recommendations on how to form a book club. One helpful hint is on how to choose a book club.

McMain says that something wonderful is happening to books, people are reading them. Oprah's Book Club has certainly rejuvenated the art of reading and also brought little known writers to attention. In this collection are very few Oprah's recommendations.

Each book review listed is limited to one page, and at the bottom of each page are several questions to ask about the literature. You are asked questions about a quality of a character, how he/she makes you feel, situations, choices made, predictability of story, idea of change in the story, contributions, transformations, etc.

Answering and analyzing these types of questions will give you an increasingly better insight into the author's mind.

And, if you do belong to a book club, the author says these are questions to provide discussion and food for thought.

Some of the Choices:
Included are stories about war, love, fantasy, political intrigue, biography etc.

Bless Me Ultima - Rudolfo Anaya - A boy's life is altered, his aunt Ultima, a curandero, (healer) visits.

Wild Swans - Jung Chang. True account of one family's life in China; violent revolution of Chairman Mao.

Black Boy - Richard Wright. A classic childhood memoir. Also read "Native Son".

The All of It - Jeanette Hainen - deathbed confession in Ireland creates dilemma for local priest.

Lake of the Woods - Tim O'Brien - A mystery about a married couple, his wife turns up missing.

All Over But the Shoutin' - Rick Bragg - a poor white southern boy tributes his mother.

Fire on the Mountain - Edward Abbey - bold and strength, a rancher & U.S. gov. trying to claim his land.

Rose - Martin Cruz Smith - an explorer sent to Africa to find a missing young minister.

Daughter of Persia - Sattareh Farmaiian - A women's journey from her father's harem to Islamic revolution

Bitter Grounds - Sandra Benitez - rich and poor families tied to El Salvador's coffee plantations

Animal Dreams - Barbara Kinsolver - finding sweet life among sweet good people.

No Ordinary Time: F. & E. Roosevelt, the home front in World War II - Doris Goodwin Kearns

Errands - Judith Guest - a family faces death of its father, their lives crumble.

There's plenty more, and I highly recommend this book for anyone who has ever asked, "What Have You Read That's
Good?".....MzRizz.

Very highly recommended for book enthusiasts........2000-09-04

The Reader's Choice is a treasury of 200 book club favorites and provides a set of 'top picks' by over 70 reading groups and clubs across the country, from Oprah and NPR to regional book clubs. Selections avoid best-seller top lists and provide 'midlist', thoughtful books in a range of themes and subjects. Recommended for book enthusiasts seeking something other than the Top 10.

Buy this one before you go back to the bookstore!.......2000-08-23

This useful guide of book club favorites was given to me by a good friend, and has really served me well. I loved the author's sense of intimacy with both her readers and the books.You can see that this is a person who really loves books as the imaginative creations that they are, and loves to share them with others. It empowered me at the bookstore recently when I was able to find new three books that I have since loved and shared, instead of spending hours looking for something of interest. With 200 reviews, I look forward to using this guide for quite a while. The author's book club group in northern California sounds like so much fun that I hope that one day maybe I could get an invitation ...

A helpful book, but not for everyone........2000-08-21

This is a guide for book groups and other serious readers. It lists 200 worthy selections, giving a page-long description of each book, some info about its author, and some questions for discussion. Many of the books sound really interesting, and the guide should be very helpful for a lot of readers.

However, be warned that it's not quite as comprehensive as it seems. The back-cover copy says the book contains recommendations from "reading groups nationwide," but the introduction reveals that the groups are really only from California, Oregon, Colorado, and New York. As a result, West Coast authors and books are over-represented. This isn't a bad thing--you'll learn a lot about authors you may have never heard of before. Still, a bit more balance would have been nice.

Regardless, this is a useful book. If you're like me, you'll find a lot that interests you here, and a lot of good suggestions for your reading group.

The Readers' Choice: 200 Book Club Favorites
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The Readers' Choice: 200 Book Club Favorites
Victoria Golden McMains
Manufacturer: Harper Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000QY85NO

Whose Panties are These? More Misadventures from Funny Women on the Road
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Great read, good laughs.

A Book More of travel observations than humor

Hilarious

Not that funny

Perfect for on the go reading

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ASIN: 1932361111

Book Description

The best travel stories often hatch when things go completely wrong, and this second title in a series of women's travel humor capitalizes on that phenomenon with more sidesplitting stories of female misadventure around the world. Readers laugh, cry, and commiserate with these women through their memorable mishaps such as gorging on Lebanese chicken to increase their breast size, battling tick paranoia in an Ozark campground, evading the demands of the Turkish mafia, getting even with a prank-fueled convention co-worker, and trolling for straight men in gay London. Showcasing every known type of travel blunder, botch, stumble, and bumble, these rollicking stories come from all reaches of the globe and are told from a quintessentially female point of view.

Customer Reviews:

Great read, good laughs. .......2007-04-29

I stumbled upon this book in our local "Booksmart" bookstore. The first story I browsed was entitled "The Big O". I laughed so loud that the owner of the bookstore came to see what was up. I couldn't stop laughing. There are many funny stories, some less funny than others. Overall a great book. Great travel stories, from places I never even heard. Each story is original and well told. A great read, good laughs.

A Book More of travel observations than humor.......2006-09-12

Searching for some fun books for an upcoming 18 hour plane flight, I bought this book plus "Sand In My Bra" and "The Risks of Sunbathing Topless" by Kate Chynoweth. To be honest, I've got to agree with some of the other reviews here that the stores were not that funny. The story "Adventures of the Mega Chicken" was almost worth buying the book, but others were dull and I ended skimming to the end. A story "Miami Spice" was lifted from a Cosmo article that was published several years ago.

On the other hand, I had tears streaming down my face when reading "The Risks of Sunbathing Topless". I could not stop laughing.

Jennifer Leo has a great idea and I hope she does another book- but perhaps with a little better story editing.

Hilarious.......2006-05-05

This makes Jack Kerouac seem like a pretentious adolescent. Totally down-to-earth and gut-bustingly funny. I'm a guy, I've done my share of travelling, and chicks on the road is the ultimate amusement. Go Jen Leo! Bring more!

Not that funny.......2005-12-16

There was only 1 story that actually got me to chuckle. The rest just didn't strike my funny bone but they were interesting to read about. If you like reading travel adventures...this is a good book to pick up. Funny women....not even close.

Perfect for on the go reading.......2005-03-12

I bought this book when on a cross-country jaunt last year before leaving Seattle. I had finished the books I'd brought with me and now just wanted some short, light-hearted stories about other travelers and their misadventures. I agree with other reviewers in that you don't really want to read these stories all the time, as they get old quickly. However, for times when you just want something to engross you for a while when you're one the road and leave you with some chuckles, it's a good buy. I enjoyed this book thoroughly and look forward to contributing my own misadventures someday. Don't get it if you're expecting some life-changing views on other cultures or travel in general, but get ready to laugh a bit and pass your time with this book in a pleasant way.

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