Kimberly Davis Books

I absolutely love this book! My children also love reading these poems.

This companion volume to the film (it was written as that, expressly) can be read and enjoyed by someone who's never seen that film. That would be me, as it happens.

A 16th Century peasant named Martin Guerre abandons his wife and child, and disappears from his home area completely for many years. When a man arrives in their village claiming to be the long absent Martin, and knowing details about his life there, his family decides that the physical differences they see must be due to the time that's passed. After all, the Martin who went away was no more than a youth. Eventually, though, Martin's uncle makes up his mind that this man is an imposter. Bertrande de Rols, Martin's wife, finds herself in an awkward position because the suit is filed in her name. Yet she has lived with "Martin" for several years since his return, and has borne him more children. Can she really have been so mistaken? Was she aware from the beginning, but chose to participate in the deception? Or is this man truly Martin Guerre, despite what his uncle and others now say? Into the midst of the legal proceedings walks a man with a wooden leg. A man who says that he is the true Martin Guerre, come home at last after hearing that an imposter has taken his place. Taken his wife, and his inheritance.

That's the story. The author makes no attempt at suspense, assuming that most of her readers know it already. The book's purpose is not to tell Martin Guerre's tale; rather, it's to illuminate it. With careful research into the customs of the time and place, and equally carefully analysis of accounts published not long after the events took place, the author makes sense out of the characters and their behavior in a way that isn't possible without such background. The roles of women and men in their society, the way economic and legal systems functioned, and the tension between Roman Catholicism and ascendant Protestantism all play their parts in motivating Martin, Bertrande, and the story's other actors. A fascinating piece of work, especially in its final chapters with their explanation of how publishing operated during the time when contemporary (or at least relatively contemporary) accounts of Martin Guerre's case were created.

The Return of Martin Guerre is a great book because it is very well reserched and is a very easy read for people who are not familar with the history of France. At times the book becomes dry but overall it is a wonderfully compelling story. The story of Martin Guerre seems almost unreal if it did not have historical proof behind it. The story sounds like something out of a hollywood movie which makes the story very compelling. The movie of the same title is great but read the book before seeing the movie. Together they give a great understanding of France during this period

This is a well-written and well-researched historical work. The book needs all the requirements for academic writing, yet actually manages to be readable! Shocking thought, right? This is definitely worth the time to read! As a note there is a movie version, in French, that is actually quite well done (Davis consulted on it) and knock off US version set in the Civil War (Sommersby), which sucks.

Davis explores the trial of Martin Guerre in medieval France. Guerre runs off to war and deserts his wife and son. Years later, a man appears claiming to be Guerre. The town and his wife accept this man with few complaints. Then, all of sudden, Guerre's family accuses this man of not really being Martin Guerre. The trial ensues with Martin's wife (Bertrande) standing staunchly by that this IS her husband. In the final bit, just as the courts are about to believe Bertrande and "Martin," another Martin appears - the real Martin. The imposter (Arnaud du Tilh) is hung and Bertrande goes back to her "real" husband. The story reads like it should be fiction - and a soap opera at that - yet it is a historical trial. Davis' sources come straight from the trial transcripts and the one of the judges. She even includes a chapter that explores this at the end (this is probably the hardest to read for a casual reader).

Davis does a beautiful job of recreating the era and the people, especally Bertrande. Bertrande can be easily pushed aside in this story, yet it is her story that Davis highlights.

I use this book in my western civilization classes because it really showcases the "normal" people of medieval France. It is definitely worth the time to read. If you want to enjoy a book AND learn something, this is the book for you. It also makes a great present to budding young historians.

At first, Natalie Davis collaborated with the director Daniel Vigne on his film, but she became dissatisfied by how many elements of the story never made it into the movie. Her book adds specific details she thought central to the story; such as, the Guerre's Basque roots, Bertrande first meeting Arnaud du Tilh at an inn outside of the village, and Bertrande's reasons for collaborating with the imposter. Davis' story affords her audience a rare glimpse into the world of peasant life in sixteenth century France. Historically, there are only a few times when the everyday lives of the lower social classes receive comment in history or literature. Students of the humanities have only a few primary source books to examine. The Domesday Book is a collection of census records from eleventh century England. The Canterbury Tales are a fourteenth century collection of tales describing the lives of religious pilgrims in England, authored by Geoffrey Chaucer. The Decameron is also a fourteenth century collection of stories, this time from Italy, written by Giovanni Boccaccio.

Davis' story focuses on Bertrande de Rols and her place in sixteenth century society, especially as a wife. Bertrande was married to Martin Guerre who was a young peasant of Basque heritage. Both Bertrande and Martin were in their early teens during a time when marriage customs for peasants was changing in Europe. For several years, these two very young kids have trouble consummating their marriage. Davis speculates that Bertrande may have been happy with this circumstance since it gave her a chance to enjoy adolescence and be free of the drudgery of motherhood and all the duties that went with it. This becomes evident by the fact that she refuses to annul her marriage at her parent's insistence. A few years go by before Bertrande conceives and gives birth to a son - her first foray into adulthood. Davis explains how Bertrande, like other peasant women, became even more aware of the male dominated world in which she lived. This is evident by the particle "de" in her name, which was a custom in the area where she lived depicting the social and legal connection female peasants had to the men in their families. She was subordinate to her father, her husband, and finally her widowed mother and her uncle turned stepfather. Frances and Joseph Geis illuminate in detail the customs of family and marriage during this time in history. During the Middle Ages, most peasants did not have formal marriage vows conducted in church. Instead, they vowed to each other to live as common law husband and wife. Formality was not necessary since peasants did not own property; they worked the lands of the nobility as tenant farmers. Marital mores change in the sixteenth century due to the peasant's ability to own land, which in turn causes parents to insist on having more control over their children's marital choices.

In 1548, Martin runs away from his village of Artigat, France to join the army, leaving his twenty-two year old wife Bertrande and a young son. His abandonment severely reduces Bertrande's social standing in the village. She is no longer a full-fledged wife, nor is she a widow who had property rights. Without a body to prove Martin is dead, she cannot divorce him; thus, she is stuck with her plight. She has to move back in with her mother. In addition, she faces ridicule from peers at every turn. Davis believes that all of these circumstances add up to Bertrande becoming an unhappy person. After eight years of living in quiet desperation, it is no wonder that she would finally find fulfillment of her hopes and dreams of a better life when the imposter Arnaud du Tilh nicknamed "Pansette," shows up in the village in 1548, in the guise of Martin Guerre. Of course, Bertrande would be predisposed to want to believe that her husband had returned to her, which would allow her to regain a better social status in the village. It also meant that Bertrande would be able to have her own household with her husband who inherited land from his recently deceased father. Davis correctly speculates that even if Bertrande soon realizes Pansette is not her husband, she still finds in him a congenial companion and falls in love with him. They also have a daughter together. Davis finds it very plausible that Bertrande would become a willing collaborator, in order to protect her newfound freedom and social standing. The couple's marital bliss unravels the day Pansette argues with his uncle, Pierre Guerre, over his desire to sell off some of the land. This causes Pierre to become suspicious of the identity of his nephew, since it is an old Basque custom never to sell ancestral land, leading him to sue Pansette as an impostor in a court of law. The feud divides the village and finally places a rift between Pansette and Bertrande. Bertrande had originally testified that Pansette was the original Martin. However, before the start of a subsequent court hearing she caves into the enormous pressure from her widowed mother who married Pierre, to change her testimony. Fearing she could lose her good name and social standing in the family and village, she changes her testimony and accuses Pansette of being an imposter.

Davis comes under heavy criticism from Robert Finlay surrounding the suppositions that she makes about Bertrand's emotions, motivations, and her complicity in the deception perpetrated by Pansette. In Finlay's, article The Refashioning of Martin Guerre he accuses Davis of reading too much into the court record left by Coras. "This Bertrande de Rols seems to be far more a product of invention than of historical reconstruction." Davis, responding to Finlay's criticism of her research methods, more than adequately defends herself in her journal article On the Lame. In it she describes her meticulous research of the court records, social roles and cultural customs of sixteenth century France. "For Davis ... peasant women, are people with sexual as well as economic drives and with cultural traditions and resources which have escaped the eyes of most orthodox historians."

The social historian Natalie Davis was tireless in her efforts to comb the local archives, judicial records, and in conducting interviews of present day inhabitants of the village Artigat to record the folklore of the "famous case" from their village. Davis has brought to light this micro history of sixteenth century peasant life in France in an easy to understand and compelling film and narrative. What makes the story so interesting to modern day viewers and readers is how relevant the story and the people in it are to our own times. This story is about a history of everyday people rather than royalty and generals, history's usual subjects. The story is replete with mystery and plot twists. It also examines the psychological areas of passion and deceit, while questioning personality formation and the self. In tying all of these sub plots together, Davis presents to her modern day audience a chance to examine and to compare their own identities and questions of self.

I read this book for a graduate class in the Humanities. Recommended reading for anyone interested in history and, psychology.

The Return of Martin Guerre is not a regular history book. It is extremely short and extremely readable: a tale of intrigue; muddled and contradictory motivations; ethnic assimilation, sexual deficiencies; witch craft; and the stolen identity of a peasant by another on the backdrop of the Protestant reformation in France, Natalie Z. Davis's account of this utterly weird case of sixteenth century fraud proves the old dictum that historians never tire of explaining to incredulous novelists and an unfortunately indifferent public: truth is stranger than fiction.

The life of Martin Guerre would have left nearly no evidence of any existence, and have been of little use for any historian, were it not for the fact that he abandoned his young wife and son when he was in his early twenties for motivations that the modern historian can only guess at. Wanting adventure and release from a matrimonial bond that had been established for him at an extremely young age by his wife's and his own parents, young Guerre made his way into the service Spanish nobility and then fought in the Spanish wars in modern Flanders and Holland, where he would loose a leg. This, in and of itself, is unremarkable. There were likely many gimps made by their service in Armies of Spain in the sixteenth century. The utter weirdness of this situation only begins with the entrance of Arnaud du Tilh.

From a modern standpoint, it is difficult to imagine that anyone who knew Martin Guerre would have mistaken Arnaud du Tilh for him for any great length of time. Martin was tall and slender whereas Arnaud was short and stocky; Martin was athletic whereas Arnaud was a lazybones; Martin was difficult and irascible where Arnaud was generally likable; Martin was a native speaker of Basque whereas Arnaud's first tongue was French. The only thing that Arnaud and Martin really had in common was that neither was happy enough in the life they were born into to remain where they were. The question becomes then, how could Arnaud possibly hope to, and very successfully, appropriate the identity of Martin Guerre?

Davis gives many reasonable explanations. First, this was an age before photography and therefore only flawed memory could serve the purpose of knowing what Martin looked like among peasants too poor to have considered portraiture. Second, the Basque tradition which Martin Guerre grew up placed a powerful emphasis on the importance of family and seeing him return would have been, even after a less than honorable exit nearly a decade before, a nearly unadulterated joy. Finally, Davis points out what is the truly amazing about Arnaud is that he had, "a memory an actor would envy (35)." Though this mechanism alone, Davis believes, Arnaud is able to tap into a myriad number of stories which he is able to consciously able to craft into a believable mask of Martin Guerre--one that would, seemingly, fool Martin Guerre's friends, family, and his wife for several years. Even more amazingly, when much of his family was certain that Arnaud was not actually Martin, he would nearly deceive several magistrates.

The fraud only did not go unpunished because the real Martin Guerre reappeared on the scene in the nick of time, and with not much in the way of explanation, with less of memory for the events of his life than Arnaud had. It was this fact that compelled Davis's two primary sources on the case of Martin Guerre to try to understand just what it was that they had witnessed. As Davis points out, this was a case where absolutely nothing was as it seemed. This is what drew both Jean Coras, the judge who nearly freed Arnaud to return to Martin Guerre's wife, to write his magisterial Arrest Memorable and Guillaume Le Sueur Admiranda historia de Pseudo Martino. Both works show a powerful respect for the fact that Arnaud was able to pull off such an incredible act of fraud for so long, but neither could come to terms with how a peasant was capable of doing this. Ultimately this is what drew Davis to the case and will likely be what continues to draw readers to her book.

The passion that resonates from those pages are like no other this book has that rare and honest quality that gets so lost today. This writer is truly creating a niche for herself. You gain so much just by getting a peak into her metamorphosis.

Take a journey into the compelling story of one woman's triumph over life's curve-balls only to achieve the ultimate dream.

The roller coaster ride of emotions that the author felt were portrayed in this book. I laughed and cried as she took us on her journey and battle with GOD often looking at myself.

I enjoyed this book very much. The author was able to capture how she was affected by her many losses and how she overcame the pain of those losses through prayer. Her story of faith is wonderfully inspirational.

Author Kimberly R. Davis has written her testimony in a short, non-fiction book titled, "All I Wanted Was a Baby." She shares her trials in efforts to conceive a child with her husband. She spoke of her desire to have a child of her own, being able to cuddle, nourish, and train him in the way he should go.

Unfortunately, after enduring nine miscarriages, her faith in God was shaken, and her desire turned into defeat. That is until after enduring the miscarriages and dealing with the emotional baggage and fading faith in God, was she able to carry her first son to term. All this was due to the prayers of her family and church family is Mrs. Davis' testimony. Not only was she able to finally have her first child, the Lord blessed her again and then again with sons numbers two and three!

Mrs. Davis' testimony is one to be admired and should give faith and hope to any woman who is having trouble conceiving and that through faith and prayers, God will bless you to have a child as well. The first thing I noted was at first inspection the book is a little deceiving unless you read the back cover. The front of the book gives you a visual of what appears to be a young teenager who might be trying to have a baby of her own. After reading the book, I was not convinced that the writer actually endured all she wrote about. The voice of the author "sounded" monotone, almost as if she were telling someone else's story and not her own. Immediately I had questions that were not answered in her book: "How did she feel other than defeated, and what does it mean to lose one's faith and in doing so, what happens?" I was looking for this short book of powerful testimony to have me in tears, praising God for the triumphs and going through this ordeal with the author.

Sorry to say that I would not recommend this book to someone who is going through a similar situation because it would leave them asking more questions than before they read the book.

Sharel E. Gordon-Love
APOOO BookClub

While helping my son select & apply for colleges last year, we purchased this book as well as the companion volumes for U of Michigan and a few other schools.

After reading pages and pages of promotional material written by the universities themselves, it was great to see a more independent student's eye view.

Two aspects of these books that were surprising, but helpful. First, the books include many collections of direct quotes from students expressing their opinions on various aspects of the school. They are printed together verbatim. The comments are sometimes conflicting, which seems to reflect the "real world" aspects of selecting a school. As a simple example, the section on dorms and dorm foods includes quotes ranging from specific comments about individual dining halls pluses and minuses, to broad statements that the food is awful, to others with more favorable assessments. This seems to be a faithful reproduction of what you'd get if you asked the students yourself.

Second, it was interesting to read the books for 2 schools "side by side". When comparing MSU and U of M, it became clear how many aspects these two large Big Ten schools have in common - probably more than they differ.

Since my son has only been on campus at MSU for a few months, it may be too soon to say whether all the details are up to date, but overall the book's description of the school seems accurate. Meanwhile, the related volume on U of M appears to be up to date; we are residents of Ann Arbor and so are familiar with at least many of the townie related details.

I would recommend this book, as well as others in the series, highly for those in the undergrad college selection process. They provide a great counterpoint to the materials sent by the colleges themselves.

Our son (he is 3 1/2) loves this book. The book shows and explains five differant types of hammers. He asks which ones we have and when the book repeats the "sound" of the hammers hammering he "reads" along! If your child, boy or girl, likes to build with legos, etc., and is interested in construction toys this book would be a great buy!
P.S. My brother who works at home depot thinks its a great book too!

Mr. Billac takes a very casual literary approach to discussing a specialized family of herbs known as adaptogens. His primary focus is on the work of Dr. Israel Brehkman of the former Soviet Union. Dr. Brehkman, along with 1200 scientists, spent 45 years researching and developing a combination of rare herbs that help your body recover at a cellular level from stress (such as physical activity, work, illness, etc.). These products include Prime One and Brehkman's Gold. Billac's book elaborates on Brehkman's research, supporting testimony from people who have used the product, and general information about adaptogenic products. Overall, this is good reading if you are interested in health, wellness and/or the subject of adaptogens.

I recently finished this "book", and am utterly disappointed.
It is one part self-promotion, one part low-level introductory
information on adaptogens, and five parts infomercial for an
adaptogen-selling company, a multi-level marketer named "Prime
One".

Let me sum up the book for you:

1) I am Pete, a down-home, truth-telling writer
who writes about whatever I like, and I sell
alot more books than those so-called "good writers"
2) Adaptogens can help you "adapt". Since that's complicated
for us regular folks to understand, I'll spell it out
for you: "A-D-A-P-T".
3) Some guy named Brekhman did a lot of research on
this. I mean, a LOT. Know what I mean? A LOT. I won't
bother you with any details, just take my word for it.
4) A lot of other guys did a lot of research, too.
It's all good. You won't be needing any references,
just get yer adaptogens right here folks, yes indeedy,
step right up to Prime One.

5) Everything about adaptogens is great. You should
get some. But buy only from Prime One. They have
the secret formula. Really.
6) Want to know more? Read a study? Get some real
historical context? Come on, that's for eggheads,
regular folks like you and I don't need that
kind of info!

If you think I am joking, go ahead and waste some money
and time buying this book and see for yourself.

For me, a ten minute google search revealed much much
more than was in this book. Save your money on this
one, folks.

Having said all that, I *am* sold on adaptogens,
found lots of info on the 'net, and very likely
will try out a bit of the Prime One products.

But surely none of that was thanks to this book!

This was no where near the true life of being married to an officer! It is a disgrace to police wives and their husbands.

This book was awful. It had nothing at all to do with being married to the badge. Plus her grammar is horrible. There is no point to this book, unless you just like to read a bad book for the heck of it.

I have been married to a law enforcement officer for 10 years. This book is everything to do with a woman who is self absorbed, and nothing to do with being married to a cop. It should have been titled "I have nothing else to do with my life, so hey, why not write a stupid book". If anyone wants to know what it is like being married to the badge, you are better off staying far away from this book and talking to some real LEO wives. My disappointment in this book is extreme. I am actually angry at the writer for using that title. It is not at all about being married to a Cop.

Not sure who proof read this book- if anyone! The grammar and spelling is horrible. There are tons of typos. Putting those errors aside, the book lacked taste and I was disappointed in it.

Read 50 pages into the book, and then was glad my K-9 ate it. This isn't what I would consider a police-family help book. From what I managed to grind my way through, this should be in the adult-only fiction section...or used to help level the tables in the Amazon employee breakroom. If you're in the market for police family titles, stick with "I Love a Cop" or "Cops Don't Try".