France Books

I am am Elementary Art teacher and I use this book in my classroom. The children love the story. I personally like how the children can get into the world of "Action Jackson" without knowing the actions of Jackson.

This book is an unusual children's book and about a character whose artwork will appeal to children. Although his life is not an uplifting story, the book picks up on the important parts and gives a feeling for what "Action Jackson" was all about. His freedom to create what he wanted and put his feeling on canvas is an important message to children who need to know that there are many way to be creative. That is it is OK to put their feeling into their art without worrying about whether it is "right" or "good". It is a quiet book about an artist who was quiet but whose life was certainly active as was his art.

This book is so very well done -- lots of biographical facts woven into a beautifully illustrated story from the most peaceful and productive phase of Pollock's life. Just right for younger elementary school students -- and also good for older ones when you add the fuller biography in the back. A really wonderful book about an important artist and about making art.

Award winning authors, Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan introduce a whole new generation to the brillance of painter, Jackson Pollock as they focus on just two months in the artist's life, and the creation of one of his most famous paintings, No. 1, 1950 (Lavender Mist). Based on firsthand accounts from friends and family, and often using the painter's own words and quotes, this well researched and enlightening picture book biography lets the reader get into Pollock's head, hear his thoughts, feel his energy and joy as he works, and actually peek over his shoulder as he paints. "An athlete with a paintbrush, he uses his whole body to make the painting. Layers build with each gesture, new colors emerging, blending, and disappearing into the wet surface. He swoops and leaps like a dancer, paint trailing from a brush that doesn't touch the canvas..." Their eloquent and lyrical prose is engaging and complemented by Robert Andrew Parker's bold, bright, and busy watercolors. Together word and art paint a dazzling and evocative portrait of the artist, his work, and his times. "Some people will be shocked when they see what he has created. Some Angry. Some confused. Some excited. Some filled with a happiness they can hardly explain. But everyone will agree- Jackson Pollock is doing something original, painting in a way that no one has ever seen before..." Perfect for youngsters 7-11, Action Jackson includes a short biographical sketch at the end to augment the story and fascinating notes and sources about his life and paintings. This is non-fiction at its very best. Kudos to Greenberg, Jordan, and Parker

As someone learning to shoot a longbow for hunting deer in western Oregon, I read the book more for the archery aspects than the historical ones; however, I was treated to a simply first-class book on a famous battle. I love the way Juliet Barker sets the scene. She provides ample background on the character of King Henry and other personalities so that his actions and responses make sense. In someone else's hands this could easily have been tedious reading but it was not; it was utterly fascinating. Another reviewer wrote that this book reads more like a novel and I would agree. The author is indeed sympathetic to this king and her writing influenced me. From knowing nothing about King Henry V I feel that I understand much about him. He was an amazing person, a genuine leader, a fearless warrior, a brilliant strategist, and most appealingly to me, a man of honor. Would that we could have a president with such character!

I found this book extremely readable and very entertaining. Not something you can say about a lot of historical tomes.

The author gives a compelling account of the actual battle. So much so that the smell of the horses, the blood and gore and all the other noxious smells that are part and parcel of a battlefield seem to pervade the readers nostrils.

However the book is not just about the battle itself but also about the participants particularly the English King, scheming churchmen and murderous Dukes. The knightly heroes, cowards, surgeons and spies. The book has them all.

The author has made it possible for history to be enjoyed by a wider audience, rather than the academic. History has always been interesting. Books written like this one will make many more readers aware of that fact.

I selected this book because of an interest in Henry V. However, the book is so full with anecdotes, stories and interesting tidbits about what life was like in the 15th century that it reads like a novel. Its really hard to put down. Highly recommended!

This is a very engaging work that goes beyond the simple logistics and mechanics of the campaign and battle. It is brings the major players to life in a way that the reader comes to understand their motivations and allegiances with biographical sketches woven throughout the book. Henry V is the main figure and is smpathetically treated. His sense of the noble purpose of the campaign and belief in the righteousness of his cause comes through clearly. By contrast, Charles VI and the Dauphin are no more than shadow characters, as they were in the entire Agincourt story. The book is rich in details of chivalry. For example, the story of Raoul de Gaucourt is followed from his life before the siege of Harfleur and through his leadership of the defense of the city. The strong defense of the city slowed Henry down and cost him unexpected men and material. When Harfleur fell, de Gaucourt surrendered to the king's justice. He was paroled with the expectation that he would appear at Calais to see what fate awaited him. After Agincourt, de Gaucourt presented himself to Henry at Calais and remained an English prisoner for some time. The reader gains a good appreciation of early 15th century chivalry. Barker also addresses other elements, often surprising to the modern reader, about the difficulties of a medieval campaign. Henry landed without maps as we know them and relied on local information and scouting parties to plan his route. Her discussion of the challenges an invading army has in findings its direction is just one of many that broadens the perspective beyond the Agincourt campaign. If you have an interest in the Hundred Years War or medieval warfare you'll find this book worth your time.

If you'd like to read about a trip to France with very young students some thirty-seven years ago, this is the book for you. Gerry Ashley's ninth graders are eager to explore the world and experience a different culture on an extended basis. The book details the planning and execution of this brave venture, highlighting the imaginative ways Ms. Ashley immersed her students in the life of a village in Provence. The book demonstrates clearly the lasting impact of foreign study on the lives of these students: it's appealing to any reader and could be very useful to language teachers planning their own ventures.

Surely the ideal way to see a country is to spend several months doing it. No 48-hour galloping survey of churches and museums enlightens or enchants anyone, not in the long term. (Or the short one either, for that matter.). American teacher of French Gerry Ashley and her students - eight high school Freshmen - made the time to do it right in 1970. Ashley had the wit to plan an eight-month experience - the entire school year - that all agree, 37 years later, was hugely successful, both educationally and developmentally. Because she and her husband had lived in France as very young newlyweds Ashley knew where to go and what was fun and what was boring. She guided her students as they used and enhanced their knowledge of French, participated in (and learned to appreciate) French culture, history and cuisine, tramped through well- and not so well-known historical sites, visited with the natives with whom they talked (and talked), and benefitted hugely from a once-in-a-lifetime adventure memorialized by hundreds of snapshots, many of which appear in this amazing book.
The mind wobbles at the audacity of Ashley's vision. Her memoir of the trip captures this audicity but remains unfailingly modest, thorough, and wise. She never takes the credit but spreads it generously to include everybody - the school administration, the parents, her family, the French people encountered along the way and especially her students. As you read what she has written you appreciate not only her good sense and skill in recapturing a deeply layered experience, but you end up wishing that all teachers - even without this magical trip to offer - were as devoted and as imaginative as the writer of this wonderful book.

and a book to read! This author/teacher takes the reader on an adventure that is hard to imagine today -- traveling in France with eight teenagers, for a year! She tells the story of the year they spent in and around Provence in 1970. If you are considering travel, with or without children, in that part of the world, it is well worth a read. And if you are a teacher, it is a must read! Ashley is a model all teachers should look up to! Bravo to her for taking the adventure, and for sharing the story!

This is a gem of a book. Back in the early 1970s, an adventurous French teacher decided to take a small collection of American students -- just high school freshmen -- to Avignon with her for a year. They essentially rented out a B&B and a wild blue VW Bus for the duration, and spent their time studying math and English, practicing their French wherever they went, and using their B&B as a base of operations for journeys all across Southern Europe.
The author's perspective is deliciously warm. Each child comes to life. Each stage of the journey has a rounded, three-dimensional quality. It is clear just how much she and the others are improvising -- intent on making this a year to remember, and a year to treasure.
I bought this sight unseen and, as soon as I finished reading, I shared it with the World Language Chair at my school. A warm, inspiringly upbeat read.....and an example for how more overseas programs might be designed....

This book was recommended to me in 1970 by Marshall McLuhan. He was greatly impressed by this book, as was I. Lusseyran's experience with the human voice was particularly intriguing. I tried to contact him at the university, but he had left. Does anyone know what happened to him?

Upon becoming blind at 8 years of age, Jacques Lusseyran discovered a deep inner joy that henceforth illuminated his entire life and never left him, not even in the horror and despair of Buchenwald. He was a daring, courageous French Resistance fighter who taught people not just to see but also to experience that life beyond all life and that joy that surpasses all human understanding. Even the evil of Nazism sweeping throughout France could not dim this ever-shining light. Jacques lived life to the fullest every moment of his waking hours with an enthusiasm that is astonishing, energizing, and almost unbelievable. To read this book is discover anew that light which the darkness has never been able to extinguish.

It shows that we all, by remaining open and without fear, can remain in touch with the Light within. I admire J L tremendously, as a writer, a poet, a spiritual person, an antinazi, and an all around good guy.

Startling in its intelligence, moral power, and sheer beauty, this text is a treasure for both the seasoned wise and the passionate young. Lusseyran was a man of rare talent and courage; his untimely death in 1971 saw the loss of one of Earth's freest and wisest souls. May our children and our children's children have the privilege of reading his remarkable story.

I would recommend this gem of a book to American Anglophiles.

I found this wonderful volume when I was shuffling through a used bookstore in Raleigh, NC, while my soon to be ex was pouring over the gardening section. I came upon "The Annals of London: A Year-by-Year Record of a Thousand Years of History" just by chance. I sat down and opened it up. I was transfixed for the next two hours. It is very compelling.

This book reads like a slow-motion history of English civilization: Every page (it's organized like a newspaper) has a tidbit.

It is a gripping tale. The inevitability of the English political system is striking. The people of London ignore their leaders with a very satisfying frequency.

Interesting tidbits: Henry VIII's coffin exploded while laying in Westminster, and his remains were eaten by dogs; an article on the demolition of the Globe and a less than popular playwright; lots of flatulent monarchs and mayors; and a glimpse at the origins of the English socialist movement that is still very influential today. This book is an incredible archive, and I would recommend it to any fellow American who has a fascination for mother England.

A bit wordy and condescending in that British sort of way, but like any good newspaper, you can skip the parts that don't interest you.

This is the perfect bathroom book. Short, concise vignettes. Pick it up. Put it down. Never lose your place. I'm mere pages from finishing, and I've been reading it for 2 1/2 years.

If you're interested in London history, this book is a great way to strengthen your understanding of that great city without burying yourself in a huge tome.

So why only 4 stars? (I'd have done 3.5 if it was an option.) The author slants very heavily toward two subjects. London theatrical history and architectural history. The former is mind-numbingly ubiquitous. The latter is much more integral to understanding London as it stands today. Both subjects are important and relevant, but in some parts of the book they seem to be the only topics covered at all.

Have this book on hand anytime you are reading history of London or books set in London. I have just read London: the Biography by Peter Ackroyd and London: the Novel by Edward Rutherford and am tempted to re-read both 1000 page books so that I can follow along in The Annals. Fascinating material!

At first glance, this book with its lists of events might appear a little dry, but as you begin reading the events' descriptions, you'll soon discover pages filled with interesting historical anecdotes.

Among the events covered are institutional foundings (such as churches, hospitals, schools, theatres and newspapers), technical and medical achievements, the various floodings and freezings of the Thames, bridge and tunnel collapses, executions, assassinations, hangings, murders, fires, and more.

Even the smallest events have interesting details... such as the blowing down of Fairlop Oak in Hainault Forest in 1820. The tree is described as having branches that spread 116 ft and it is noted: "Around it took place the annual Fairlop Fair -- an event which helped to shorten the tree's life, because visitors would use the inside of the trunk to light fires for cooking."

Another entry that appears earlier in 1741 mentions the opening of St. George's Chapel in Curzon Street by a Reverend Alexander Keith who "scandalized the clergy by his readiness to perform marriages without too many questions."

Many event descriptions run for a few paragraphs and some have illustrations. My only gripe with this book is that the font size for the print is very small. (The print would be much easier to read if it was just another 2 points larger.) Aside from that, I'm sure this book will appeal to anyone with an interest in London history.

This is a great book if you're planning a trip to India with children aged 4-11, or if you've been to India with them and you want to help them recapture the experience. (I'm not sure what children who have no other connection to India would make of it.)

My son is four and loves the book in spite of all the text. He's been to India, and so have his parents. The wonderful jumble of drawings (mostly quite accurate--must have been either on-site or from a good photo collection) and collage is captivating enough that I think most youngsters would be capable of sitting through the lengthy text, though the diary format is a little awkward for reading aloud. There are occasional minor inaccuracies (the library review above correctly points out the "puja" problem... but then, this book doesn't pose as an encyclopedia entry), but as children's books on India go, this one's on the more accurate side of the scale. What's most impressive is the girl's eagerness to meet children from another place, culture, and economic class. She makes friends in a way that seems genuinely non-judgemental. (She and her family chat with a poor pavement dweller in Calcutta, an incense worker in Mysore, a fruitseller on the beach in Goa...)

This is a great book! My son is 9 years old and went to India a couple of years ago. This book vividly brought back all his memories. What I liked best was that even though it is not written by an Indian, it is so authentic. The illustrations are just great! I highly recommend it.

India is a large and diverse country, the home of many ancient and interesting cultures. This book is the travel dialog of a young girl named Anni as she travels through India with her mom and dad. They travel by train, bus, camel and elephant. There are many illustrations and they illustrate the daily street life of India. You see people bathing in the Ganges River, carts being pulled by oxen, people cooking their food in the streets, street vendors hawking their wares, children at school under a tree, and the clothes that the Indians wear. What was most interesting were the pictures of products they encountered in India. Postage stamps, matches, cameras, railway tickets, lottery tickets, honey, fireworks, fabrics, hotel receipts and other products that I did not recognize.
An excellent introduction to India written for young people, this book demonstrates some of the variety and vitality of a country whose culture was old when the first white people landed in North America.

This is a great book! My son is 9 years old and went to India a couple of years ago. This book vividly brought back all his memories. What I liked best was that even though it is not written by an Indian, it is so authentic. The illustrations are just great! I highly recommend it.

A beautiful book that arrived in excellent condition...well packaged and in a very timely manner! Excellent service! Thank you! MW

This book is full of gorgeous pictures and well-written segments that provide information in easily digested and very informative pieces. It covers topics like geology, ancient and present day ecology, geography, flora and fauna, really everything you could ask for. It would make a good reference for schoolwork that doesn't need to be highly scientific or extremely detailed. If it had that kind of additional detail, I'd give it the last star, but then it would likely be twice as thick and much more difficult to read. For the person who just wants to learn more about antarctica, this is the book for you and probably a five star purchase!

This large format style book has excellent photographs, illustrations, and maps on virtually every page in addition to text and related detailed captions.

It is broken down into four parts - the Antarctic environment, regions, wildlife, and exploration history. Each of these four main parts are broken down further into smaller topics. For instance the wildlife section has several pages detailed to each animal type (whales, seals, penguins, seabirds, etc) and then broken down further into each specific species of them by seperate text section with stats and a map showing that specific animal location around Antarctica. The exploration section similiarly is broken down into smaller timeframes (three timeframes) of discovery and expeditions.

Ovearall a great overview of everything Antarctica. Great book for reading and also for just for browsing through.

Great book including history, geology and fauna of antarctica. Excellent photographs. Very recommendable book for a cheap price for everyone who is interested in the blue continent.

I had to read and review this book for a class, and I thought it was great. I had not read any of the books referenced by Ms. Marcus, so it was difficult to tell how sucessfully she represented the authors, but thats really my problem, not hers. I would say that I don't like such heavy use of literary sources in these types of books, but it is usually because I haven't read the books.

I'm happy I chose this book to review, between the nasty review and its mention on the board, (and Ms. Marcus's rebuttal) this will be an easy book review to write.

In Apartment Stories, Sharon Marcus takes the reader on a stunning tour of the interior spaces of the nineteenth century novel. The views that Marcus offers are always exciting. Following her from behind as she weaves her way through dark regions of apartment houses is often exhilirating. Particularly pleasurable is the way she bounces around London. And although sometimes she seems to bend over to make her point, even this rewarding

There has been a recent interest in theories that undermine the undertakings of the Enlightenment and Modernism toward presenting a world made up of clear definitions and distinctions. This trend has thrown light upon those cultures and periods of history previously dismissed as irrational, decadent, or retrogressive. Further, owing to Post-Structuralist interests in language, scholars have increasingly turned towards realist novels and literature from the period being studied to unearth peculiar social environments that have remained concealed in the purely formal analyses of historical accounts.

Sharon Marcus in Apartment Stories identifies the novel as a significant mirror of everyday life. Literary criticism and cultural history, for Marcus, are intertwined disciplines that feed on each other. In Apartment Stories she uses an analysis of the nineteenth-century realist novel to illuminate a discourse about (not `on') apartment houses of the time. Employing texts that she calls `atypical', as a heuristic device for exploring the range and complexity of nineteenth century debates on domesticity and urbanism, Marcus sets herself the ambitious task of questioning conventional conceptions of the distinctions of private and public, interior and exterior, as well as masculine and feminine. She probes the text not only in terms of seeking social and physical implications of the described spaces but also in terms of the manner in which the narration itself inscribes spatial relations and establishes zones as exterior and interior, private and public, mobile and fixed.

Apartment Stories is divided into three parts. The first part, "Open Houses", discusses the apartment house as a space that refutes readability as a private, opaque, and interior space. The second part, "The City and the Domestic Ideal", discusses the cultural preference for the single-family house over the lodging houses (that resembled apartment houses) of Londoners. The third and concluding part, "Interiorization and its Discontents", deals with Paris during the Second Empire. The author claims that Paris became interiorized after 1850 and thereby challenges the established interpretation of the Second Empire Paris as one of spectacle, flânerie, and circulation. She also questions the famous notion of the Goncourt brothers that "the interior is going to die. Life threatens to become more public". Marcus, in view of the Parisian apartment house, explicates the impossibility of ever fully interiorizing the home.

Sharon Marcus's Apartment Stories provides interesting insights into the world of the bourgeois in nineteenth century Paris- though her ideas are not always convincing and not always substantiated with documentation. Her elaborate endnotes that occupy 81 pages at the rear of the book fail to provide the convincing evidence that more architectural drawings and photographs might. The book leaves the readers constantly searching through the text for `real' images of the physical character of the apartment houses to which they may correspond the analysis of the novel. In the absence of such documentation, the author herself feels the need to stop every now and then in order to summarize and locate within the overall scheme of the book what she had just written (which is also what makes the writing of the book-review easier). These impediments that occlude the understanding of her new insights are further assisted by what could be considered a methodological oversight. Her structure of discussions of the interior and exterior space rest upon the individual descriptions of interior and exterior space. The discussion does not flow from one to the other and that, I feel, strengthens the distinction between the two. A discussion of the in-between transition spaces, apart from perhaps the character of the portière, between the street and the house, that one would expect in a discussion of interior and exterior spaces, is also absent.

Marcus works from an impressive bibliography, one that partially compensates for her deficiencies in documentation and illustration. Apart from a slight error in quoting the publication date of James Stevens Curl's The Victorian Celebration of Death as 1872 instead of 1972, the bibliography, along with the book, becomes a wonderful resource for any scholarly study of nineteenth century France and England in the fields of feminist theory and criticism, geography, urban studies, architectural history, literary criticism, and interdisciplinary research on everyday life.

In an elegantly written and persuasively argued volume, Sharon Marcus uses the idea of the apartment building as a tool to comb out two sets of terms that tend to clump together in discussions about the 19th century: man=city=public, woman=home=private. In a work made pleasurable to the general reader through her clear and careful writing and her judicious use of footnotes, Marcus proposes a world of 19th century men, women, homes, and cities, that interact in more messy and interesting ways than we've learned to expect. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Louis Kahn would have loved this book. Silence and beauty permeate its pages. Intense.

Architecture of Silence is a finely wrought volume of exceptional interest and beauty. Its temporal actuality immediately evokes the devotional themes which are contained within its pages. The book feels like a sacred text which was printed and bound by hand, out of love.

Cistercian cenobites understood that interior spaces were at least as significant and meaningful in the natural order of things as surface manifestations. They believed that divinity resides in places that cannot necessarily be seen or immediately sensed. Architecture Of Silence conveys splendidly the essence of this belief as expressed through the physical monuments they created in worship.

Heald is head photographer for the Guggenheim Museum of New York. He is far more than an expert photographic technician, however. The book exemplifies uncompromisingly conscious, staggeringly sensitive image making. As he composed and developed these images, Heald must have had a vivifying rapport with the same extraordinary source of energy and insight that infused the psyches of the original builders of these Abbeys. Wonderful. Inspiring. Awesome. Excellent essay too.

I was on a spiritual pilgrimage in France in October 2000, and I toured most of the abbeys that are featured in this book. I did not see this book until after I returned from France, and I must admit that the photos in this text are the most impressive of all the books that I have viewed on Cistercian architecture. I love this book ! The photographer has been able to capture the peace, simplicity, and soul of these medieval monuments. How many photography books actually bring your spirit to a deeper level of tranquility? This one surely will. The introduction is beautifully written and was composed by The expert and scholar of Cistercian architecture. I also recommend another excellent book on this subject: Cistercians: Monks and Monasteries of Europe, by Stephen Tobin.

I have made numerous trips to Paris, armed with several guidebooks, including a Frommers, a Lonely Planet and an Eyewitness, and this is by far my favorite. It's fun to browse through and it makes it easy to find something you want to run out and see. It's a relief to find a guide that's not trying to be an exhaustive list of every possible restaurant, museum or hotel. It has just the right amount of practical info to get you where you want to be and ready for the reality of it when you get there.
Until I used this guidebook I didn't realize that guidebooks are often jammed with too much (boring) information.

The graphics and photos are terrific -none of those grainy 80's pictures of people eating croissants under the Eiffel tower.

Without a doubt, the best travel guide I've ever used. I've been to Paris many, many times, and this guide led me to places I'd never even heard of. Particular strengths are in the areas of Clubs/Bars & Nightlife, Live Music & offbeat museums (who knew there was a Musee de l'Erotisme?) This book is a great choice for the fun-loving urban traveler. I'd highly recommend purchasing this in conjunction with "Time Out Paris", which is exceptionally good for restaurant recommendations.

Bon voyage!

I have an absolute infatuation with Paris. I travel there about once a year and now own over 40 travel guides on Paradise, err, I mean Paris. This book is my absolute favorite. Sure, the images and layout on the pages are totally hip, but more important so is the information. Anyone who's read a few travel books on Paris knows about FNAC music shop and Virgin Megastore, but through this book, I also learned about Boulinier, Crocodisc, Chez Sanchez, Monster Melodies, La Silence de la Rue, and Parallèles, which all specialize in a focused area of music. I discovered some incredible boutiques that I've never seen listed elsewhere. A few sights are mainstream (how can one visit Paris without seeing the Eiffel Tower or Arc de Triomphe?) but what makes this book unique is the listing of sights, restaurants, and shops that are totally cool that I haven't seen elsewhere. And if you want up-to-the-minute changes to the text, one simply travels no farther than their website. The book also has a "bite" -- raw, honest opinions. One problem with my book, however. I have read it and carried it around so often that my copy is getting quite tattered. For anyone with a true sense of adventure or who wants to explore some unique French spots where you won't encounter dozens of other tourists, this is your book.

I've read every kind of guidebook, from Let's Go in the 1980's to Lonely Planet in the 90's and this refreshing addition to the multitude is just the answer for the young (and not so young) adventurous traveller. The graphic design is fun and reveals a smart editor - hire a good graphic designer. The writing is witty and irreverant at times - perfect for those who seek a good experience without the hype. The maps are inadequate - but who travels with one guidebook these days anyway? That's what tourist maps are for.

I particularily liked the photographs, certainly not your average "Gee, here we are in front of the Eifel Tower" standard fare. They capture everything you dream Paris would be: classy, cutting edge and just plain gorgeous. The writing gets to the point quickly with all the necessary facts, yet does allow for some subjectivity that I found refreshing both before our trip and during our stay.

Buy this book if you're a repeat visitor to Paris and looking for another experience beyond the three day quickie when you have barely enough time to see the big league sites. The nightlife and eating sections are worth the price alone. Sure, we carried our Michelin Green Guide because we're architects and enjoy knowing the details, but for a cover to cover guidebook, this is the best yet.