Plantation Homes of the James River

I bought this book before departing on a trip along the James River for the purpose of visiting the old plantations. My original ancestors settled in this part of Virginia and I wanted to visit family locations. I loved the colorful photos and rich descriptions. Though the Department of the Interior, Parks Service lists many more old homes than were shown in this book, it highlighted the most popular ones. After reading this book, I picked out half a dozen I wanted to put in my travel itinerary. I visited Shirley and Berkeley and found them to be even more beautiful than the presentations in the books. At both locations, the tour guides and gift shop hostesses displayed the expected warm, Southern hospitality that these old homes were symbols of. Most are still privately owned and operated and are gems of our heritage. The book was an excellent representation of what one would see on a visit. I would recommend it to those who love to travel and visit historical sites and also to students of history.

I should have known with the reduced price that "you get what you pay for". The book I received, while in good condition, appears to be a poor BOOT-LEG COPY...most notably, the COVER OF THE BOOK IS DIFFERENT, pictorially and style-wise, from what is depicted on AOL and of course the original book, that I purchased at the full price at Berkley Plantation. The copyright is the same for both books, 1990, however, ironically, the original/authentic book is "Manufactured in China", and the "boot-leg" version is "Manufactured in Japan". Note, there is no mention of a second printing. Everything else appears to be the same, except for the front and back jacket-style book cover, which gives an odd crease to the front and back of the book, i.e. it was designed to go over a hard cover book as a jacket -but this is not a hard cover book, AND most obviously, it has totally different book cover (front and back) photos and slightly different narrative from the original. Bottom line, I would not have purchased this book f I knew it was a boot-leg version, i.e. different front and back, book cover picture, and of course the quality/style of the covers so different from the authentic version- crease down the middle of the front and back because of the folded front and back pages/covers. Buyer beware!

Sit back in your favorite chair, get a nice glass of ice tea or a cup of coffee, maybe a litle snack, snuggle under a nice quilt and enjoy the tour of these grand old homes. This book is filled with great pictures, both inside and out, plus tons of information on the history of each plantation home. After looking at it, you'll feel like you were just there in person, and be a lot more knowledgeable about each plantation. I love going to historical locations, and even live in Virginia and have seen some of these homes in person, but it's always fun to pull out a great book and "tour" places again. This book is super - you won't be disappointed.

I bought this book because my husband and I are descendants of the original owners of two of the homes.The book came wrapped in plastic, yet when I unwrapped it, all the pages smelled like smoke.

beautiful book! I enjoyed reading about the houses that we will be visiting soon.

This book is page after page of gorgeous color photos of plantation houses. There's plenty of information, too, but this is a book that I just like to sit and view the pretty pictures.

This came in perfect condition;low price looking like new, with perfect and gorgeous photos. I never tire of looking through these photos of the exterior/interiors of these colonial mansions of our nation's history.

This is a beautiful book depicting the beautiful homes on the James River. It's even better to use as a guide when seeing them in person.