This new title provides yeoman's work if you're looking for a day hike in the Shenandoah Valley, including within Shenandoah National Park. But it falls short in some aspects.

The upside is that it brings you a list of 50 day hikes in the region. These hikes are broken out with quick-glance information on directions to the trailhead; how difficult they may, or may not, be; distance; elevation gain; estimated time it'll take you to hike them, and; suggested maps and GPS coordinates. There also are symbols that let you know at a glance whether you'll encounter a fee, whether you can hike with your dog, or whether you'll come upon a waterfall.

All good, basic, information.

But these days, with competition from other guidebooks as well as the Internet, you need to go beyond the basics. 

For instance, the hike to Rapidan Camp, President Hoover's summer retreat that now falls within Shenandoah, encourages you to "Visit President Hoover's retreat," yet fails to dig into the deep history of that retreat. Instead we're told that "A number of signs detail the history of this place, where President Herbert Hoover relaxed from the stress of governing the country during the Great Depression. The White House physician of the day called the camp 'one of the most relaxing places that I have ever known.'"

What we're not told is that President Hoover held an arms-control summit there with British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, met with senators and congressmen, convened Cabinet meetings (separate cabins for Cabinet members were built down the road from Camp Rapidan), and held sessions with the day's leading industrialists as he sought a solution to the Great Depression. But he also found time to pitch horseshoes with aviator Charles Lindbergh and relax with Thomas Edison.

Telling details such as those can make your hike all the richer, and you might expect such insights when the "At-A-Glance Trip Planner" mentions an "Historic Presidential Retreat" as the "highlight" of the Rapidan Camp hike.

It also would have been helpful for that At-A-Glance planner to denote which hikes are good in winter, as the book's cover bills it as a "Four-Season Guide."

Too, there's little information on the vegetation found along the trails in terms of types, blooming seasons and fall colors, information that could both entice you to a trail, or help you decide when to hike it.

In her piece for the Traveler on a section of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail in southwestern Virginia, Danny Bernstein took a couple of sentences to point out, "Right now purple Catawba rhododendrons and flaming azaleas are in bloom. Mountain laurel will open up in a couple of weeks. Gold finches flit through the bushes."

Such telling details can add great depth to a guidebook.