France Books

I totally agree with all the reviews below. What a pity this book is dropping out of print. It is an excellent general introduction to the Greeks that is funny, lively, and never takes itself too seriously. My one issue with Mr. France is that the translations of Homer, Sophocles, and Aeschylus he recommends are good (Hammond, Rieu, Vellacott, Watling), but what about Fagles? Maybe it is a British thing; but after Fagles' translations, those others simply won't do.

I started to read this book expecting a dry and labourious list of past events in ancient Greece and such like. From the first line of the introduction it was clearly not going to be like any other book on the classics I had ever read.
It is funny, factual - I loved the bit about Parson's Pleasure -,engaging, thoroughly entertaining and very informative. You've just got to buy this book.....

As a retired computer industry executive, I have spent seventeen serious years both formally a la carte at Oxford and elsewhere as well as informally studying classical Greek culture, have amassed a library of over four thousand books on this subject, and I only regret that I didn't have Peter France's book as my course outline before I started. The respect that Sir Kenneth Dover and other eminent scholars (and in Dover's case, formerly Oxford) lent Mr. France certainly attests with more authority than I to its value. Its thoroughness, breadth and accuracy of representation of a very complex culture is truly admirable and would have saved me from many lower priority lower yield "roads less traveled".

I read this book to get a general feel for ancient greece after reading the Odyssey in the summer. The book was an excellent walk though of ancient greek culture and philosophy, though in places it can be difficult without an academic background of sorts. I particularly liked how straight forward the authors analogies were, and how the information was portrayed in section, in particular the snippits from actual greek plays give a taste of some of the greats that is certain to leave one wanting for more. An Excellent book.

In Gunner's Run by Rick Barry, Jim Yoder, a World War II B-26 gunner, falls from his plane and parachutes into Nazi Germany. He is quickly caught and thrown into prison. Having turned his back on God years ago, he makes his peace, knowing he may never get back home. But once he and God are communicating, Jim's prayers are answered. He manages to escape the prison, don a German soldier's uniform, and start the long trek towards France.

He sleeps the days away and travels at night, steering clear of the roads, eating raw potatoes and anything he can find. He meets friends and enemies on his journey, assumes several identities to get past Nazi forces, and dreams of the day he can get back to Indiana and see Margo, the girl he hopes to make a future with.

I enjoyed Jim's suspenseful journey to stay out of the Gestapo's clutches and how he depended on God to get him through. Having a grandfather who fought in WWII, it was fascinating to see stories of people trusting God and working together to help each other out of enemy territory. Gunner's Run put me smack in the middle of a side of WWII I never studied.

When Jim Yoder, a waist gunner aboard a B-26 during World War II, accidentally tumbles out of his plane and parachutes into Nazi Germany, he quickly realizes the gravity of his situation. Though fluent in French, he doesn't know German, so how will he communicate? Worse, he doesn't have any money or even a weapon to protect himself. Trapped in a German cell and realizing he'll need a miracle to survive and escape, he turns to the God he rejected after his mother's untimely death and begins a suspenseful and adventure-filled trek across enemy territory.

After his initial escape, which is amazing in itself, Jim begins a cross-country journey not for the fainthearted. Wearing a German soldier's uniform, he avoids roads, sleeps in barns, and catches rides on empty train boxcars. He stumbles across Jews hiding in the woods and crosses paths with both friends and foes. All the while, he wonders if he'll ever escape and fondly remembers life back in Indiana and a certain young lady who captured his fancy. A new worry surfaces: will Margo wait for him or date other Christian men (and perhaps get married) before he returns to the United States? This anxiety makes his escape even more urgent. It also compels him to depend more on God to keep him safe and to show him the way home.

I especially like how Barry wove in a clear picture of God-dependence throughout Jim's journey. Add to that a suspenseful, action-packed, and meticulously researched tale that never lags in pace or tension, and Gunner's Run is a powerful Christian novel not to be missed. I was intrigued when the plot progressed from tense and sometimes humorous episodic predicaments to Jim's sobering discovery that the Gestapo is hot on his trail. This ratcheting up of tension and suspense kept the pages turning as I wondered how Jim was going to escape, especially when his situation only becomes more dire. Don't miss this action-packed story of faith and survival.

Set during World War II, Gunner's Run is a novel for Christian young adults following nineteen-year-old Jim Yoder. The call of duty takes Jim far away from his home, his nation, and his attractive friend Margo, thrusting him into mortal peril in Nazi Europe. To survive, Jim must learn to trust the God that he used to disbelieve. Rife with historical detail, Gunner's Run brings both history and faith alive and is especially recommended for church reading lists for young members.

Great story, lots of suspense and I feel it would make a great movie. Sharing it with my friends, so far...they love it too!

I've been saving for this book for so long. It deserved it! It is great. Lovely. The photos are amazing because of their quality. I hadn't time to read the text but I know the writter is a very good one to do it.

Simply great.

I have not much more to add on the other reviews regarding the quality of text and reproductions. It is a real non-exhaustive "catalogue raisonné" of the most relevant Moreau's works (his "St. Sebastian" is mesmerizingly and ominously sublime) plus interesting essays.

Moreau is the flagship of French symbolist painting. Although he was a secluded artist he had interesting disciples, like Desvallières, in the circle of the so-called "peintres de l'âme" (painters of the soul). For them, he always was a reference, an idol, like his Semeles, Sphinxs and Salomés. Interestingly Moreau never took part in the Salon de la Rose-Croix (lead by "Sar" Péladan) or any other artistic movement. He was a perfect example of the Balzac's hero-painter in the famous novel "The unknown masterpiece": the never ending painting. Moreau's preciousness, craftmanship, genious, exoticism, decadence, mythological poetry, fin-de-siècle illness, all shape a world of his own, yet fanatically worshipped by his gallerists and collectors and, why not, by his contemporary academic popes.

If decadenticism, 19th century artistic atmosphere and fin de siècle appeal to you, this is your book.

The only thing I miss is more of Moreau's writings and letters. Probably you will find them in the books published by his museum-sanctuary in Paris. Remember his famous and evocative sentence: "I just believe what I cannot see".

I had very high hopes when I bought this book, though afraid the text would override the images; however I wasn't disappointed. The sheer quality of the printing is nothing less than remarkable. All the images in this book meet the highest standards of the printer's profession. Books on the symbolist genius Gustave Moreau are extremely hard to come by, so Between Epic and Dream (the book's title) is a rare art book being the only large volume in print at the moment.
The text acompanying the lush pictures is very informative, not only on Moreau's life's work, but there are notes on each item underneath. There is a good balance between text and images and this makes the enjoyment of viewing or reading a particular delight. Moreau's watercolors are beautifully presented and so are the paintings with both large and medium reproductions. There are drawings and studies as well to give this book a usefulness to those who would study Moreau's methods of work.
This book is a great buy at a very reasonable price. You will only need Joris Karl Huysman's novel, Against Nature (describing the painting Salome on the cover), to dream away into sweet decadence.

It's got all the goods: scholarly essays, dossiers on Gustave's most important works, wide historical sweep, accessibility for those who are more casual art-lovers, tons of color plates, good details (for painters like me, looking for something to steal). Moreau was a super-important figure in the decadent years of 19th Century France. Not as well known as, say, Degas or Courbet, his schtick seemed pretty far out. Anticipating Surrealism as well as the the nascent Symbolist movement, Moreau made insanely detailed, obessive, jewel-like paintings whose time is just now arriving. Make your coffee table as swanky and plush as an old New Orleans hotel. Moreau knew how to mix it up but certainly has his own flavor. Super great book.

The Hunter's, authors of this book,are wonderful, spirit filled Christians the Lord is using to work miracles through. This book has more info from the Bible on healing and miracles than any other book I know of.

This book is a treasurer.
Virginia

Excellent book for anyone who wants to receive and keep a healing touch for the Lord!

My parents and I "team teach" a healing and wellness course, "Healing and Health, God's Way" at a Bible College, using "Handbook for Healing", as one of the textbooks for the healing portion of our class teaching. "Handbook for Healing" gives solid, Biblical principles on healing, with practical tips from the Hunters gleaned through their many years of ministry. Among its many strengths, the book teaches effective ways to minister to various regions of the spine, and easy-to-comprehend diagrams of the spine are provided as a learning tool to facilitate this important training. Frances Hunter has emphasized that the more you know about the spine, the more effective you will be in ministering healing in Jesus' name, because so many ailments have their root cause in spinal problems. The appendix of the book features step-by-step "how-to's" for ministering healing for specific physical problems. "Handbook for healing" is an outstanding companion to the Hunter's classic, "How to Heal the Sick", and it is highly recommended the two be purchased, read and put to use together. The beauty about the Hunter's teachings is that they are effective because they are Biblically-based, yet are very practical and simple, being DUPLICATABLE so practically any believer in Christ can learn how to heal the sick in the name of Jesus.

Brian Tada
[...]

I am currently involved in a healing/prayer ministry at my local church. We, as lay people and leaders, are learning to be equipped with tools needed, whether it be conferences, books, hands-on healing, etc. to do the work that Jesus did. This book is real handy to carry everywhere I go because it is compact and concise and used as a "quick reference". I will surely recommend this book to others in this healing ministry that I'm involved in. Thank you Hunters!

Auschwitz seems a strange place to have a guardian angel. But Sim Kessel had one who in more than one case helps him to survive the hell of the camp.

Sim's story is perhaps one of the saddest I've ever read. The excessive torment he describes, the grisley and disgusting squallor of the camp seems so horrific that at some points I wondered if Sim wasn't expanding the truth - and then I immediately realized that he is not. He can not. Not with this.

Sim's story also is one of endurance. His beaten, starved, sickened body kept going through impossible circumstances and it's nothing short of miraculous. Yet the author does not ask your pity. He simply tells his story. I got up late yesterday and didn't have time to eat. Later I became very hungry but couldn't eat right away and started whining to myself. Then I remembered Sim. And shut up. He will be with me for a long time.

I would classify this as "a must read."

This excellent book covers the remarkable true story of Sim Kessel, a French Jew, throughout his experiences as a member of the French Resistance followed by his arrest by the Nazis and his subsequent detention at Auschwitz/Birkenau Concentration Camps.

His numerous brushes with death at the hands of the Nazis throughout his detention are covered in some detail, including the forced death march to other Concentration Camps prior to eventual liberation at the hands of the allies at the war's end.

There are many harrowing incidents throughout this book. It is extremely moving as Kessel describes the absolute enthusiasm in which his fellow French citizens and French Policemen participated, and indeed clearly enjoyed, rounding up their fellow Jews prior to handing them over to Nazi forces.

The book at times reads like a novel and grips you from beginning to end.

The horrifying experiences of Kessel includes his shocking execution for his part in a failed (almost successful) escape attempt. Kessel was publicly hung together with his four co-escapers on a gallows in front of an audience of some 25,000 prisoners who forced to watch the execution as a deterrent to other would be escapees.

Each prisoner was hung one at a time, with Kessel last. Viewing the deaths of his comrades, Kessel closed his eyes and awaited his own death. The trap door sprung and he fell to his death.... but the rope broke. Unaware of this due to a loss of consciousness, Kessel was then dragged away to be shot in the back of the head by another prisoner named Jacob, whose forced employment was to execute many individual prisoners in this way. Pre-war Jacob having been the trainer to former world heavyweight boxing champion Max Schmeling.

Again awaiting his death, Kessel, himself a former professional boxer, befriended Jacob through their involvement in boxing. The latter subsequently providing Kessel with the identity of an already slain prisoner which he retained throughout the remainder of his detention.

This is a very moving testimony, not only to Sim Kessel, but to the many millions who did not survive. A highly recommended read.

I have been studying the Holocaust in depth for a few years now, when I came across this autobiography. This novel opened my eyes to the torture techniques the Nazis used to gather information. Every appalling detail ground into my mind, until I had to openly share this novel with my colleagues and students. Sam's fight to survive with all the odds stacked against him shows the true battle between good and the most horrifying evil the world has ever seen. I highly reccomend this book to anyone who wants a good look at what life was like in a concentration camp and under the gallows.

Hanged at Auschwitz, by Sim Kessel, is the story of the author's horrific but incredible journey through the horror that was Auschwitz. Starting off with an arrest, and two weeks of torture at the hands of the Gestapo, Kessel then spends the next nine months in a French transit camp waiting to be sent to his final destination, and in the world that he lived in, final most times meant final. After the transit camp, and the infamous train rides where people were treated worse than animals, he ends up at Auschwitz. It was only due to his experience as a boxer, his athleticism, and a lot of luck that he was able to survive this "living hell." Three times he was marked for death and three times he miraculously survived. Despite the intense subject matter the book is a quick read. This is an amazing story of courage and I highly recommend it.

This book is all that I hoped for: not only delicious recipes, but a discussion of what Thai cooking is all about and what ingredients are used (defined and described), AND with health-conscious modifications made to traditional recipes. Highly recommended!

I am Balinese, have a restaurant and love food. I especially love Thai food.

The recipes in this book are excellent and have obviously all been tested by the author. Follow them and you will not be disappointed.

The presentation is clear at all times and the photographs are superb.

Partcularly helpful are a couple of pages on which wines best accompany Thai food - and they are not those that you would immediately think of. The explanations are interesting and illuminating.

I would recommend this book to restaurant owners, as well as people cooking at home for a few friends.

very tasty. quite healthy. many recipes are quick and easy, too. some ingredients are a little tough to get, but easily substituted. gorgeous pictures.

This book has delicous recipes which are easy to follow (with color pictures of most dishes). The dishes taste like delicous restaurant-grade food and are healthy and easy to prepare.

Not a typical survivor book filled with hate, but more an accounting of the many good people who step up in horrific situations. An easy entertaining read, the chapters seem to flow, hard to put down until finished. Very easy to get involved and caught up in the events that happened. The author has a good memory for details of a traumatic time in his and the world's life.

Simon Jeruchim, the author of this memoir,was twelve years old when his secure world came to an end. With amazing recall,he relates how he came to hide in a small hamlet in Normandy. He worked on a farm, a harsh life for a small Parisian boy. Hardest of all was not knowing about his parents and small brother. He went dutifully to church and hid his identity from everyone. By nature optimist, he was looking forward to the end of the war and reunion with his family. He was reunited with his brother and sister, but his parents did not survive, unfortunately. This book is a beautiful example of a boy's courage and determination to stay alive.

this book was given to me as gift. i have a deep interest in matters pertaining to the holocust, and i was told that the book held a different perspective from other publications regarding the nazi era. and it surely did.....the author made no attempt to judge the nazi and the french in that era. all he did was relate this fascinating story, and i drew my own conclusions.

the book traces his journey, as a parentless jewish boy,keeping a step ahead of the nazi and french, and extermination..a brave human being. . mr. jeruchim is a talented artist, as evidenced by the wonderful pictures which he drew, and are included in the book.

...

Simon Jeruchim takes you into the horrible world of escaping and hiding from french collaboraters and the Nazis during the second world war. His narrative is so compelling that you practically relive his day to day existence. His recount of the compassionate gentile families who hid him and his siblings is written staight from his heart.

this book starts to do justice to the wonderful inventive genius of michael and francis higgins, craftsmen and artistis, and the developers of advanced fused glass techniques. The book is steep at $60, but it's worth it for the great number of color plates. . . and if you know higgins glass, you'll know that a great many photographs were needed!

the only downside might be that the authors focussed too much on the dearborn years of mass-produced fused glass goods. This neglects somewhat the great variety and depth of studio work done by the higgins. But perhaps this is an apt subject for "adventures in glass, volume II".

This is truly a masterpiece of editing. The author has truly done an outstanding job. This is a MUST book for any serious Higgins collector as well as anyone who enjoys beautiful glass. The author is certainly to be commended for this one of a kind work.

A "Must Have" for any serious Higgins collector. There is an almost overwhelming amount of information presented in a most organized manner. So many wonderful color photographs that I went into sensory overload. Loads of great, historical information and imagery. The only down side of the book is that the price guide is not representative of current market values but if looked at properly will still give you a good idea of how one pattern will relate to another in value. I wish other collectable genres had reference guides of this caliber.

If you want to collect Higgins glass, this book is an absolute must-have. The prices are outdated; with the recent death of Michael Higgins, I have seen pieces sell for double or triple the book's values. This is much more than a price guide, though. This book details the history of Higgins glass, their techniques, and how to identify what is and is not Higgins glass. There are several beautiful color pictures on almost every page, and I enjoy looking at them almost as much as I enjoy looking at the pieces in my collection.

If you're sitting someplace that isn't Paris and trying to get a sense for the élan of cafés, bistros, and restaurants in the City of Light, there are many other books I'd recommend ahead of this one. Without photos or other illustrations, maps, or what you might call atmospheric descriptions, "The Historic Restaurants of Paris" is not a book I'd suggest sitting down with and reading through from cover to cover. I know because I tried.

But if you are in Paris, or planning a Parisian trip where you have a pretty good idea of where you'll be spending time ... that's when this book would be, not only useful, but I think almost invaluable. The brief profiles of dozens of bistros, cafés, and food shops put each in a bit of historic and neighborhood context and would be helpful, I think, for deciding where to have lunch that day. The book's small size, though somewhat bulky, fits well into a travel jacket or bag. I'd imagine this volume would get a lot of use on your trip, even if it didn't come off the shelves much once you got home.

I read Ellen Williams's book about the Impressionists, and her charming prose and wealth of historical anecdotes made 19th-century Paris come alive in a way I've never before encountered in a travel guide. This book is great, too. I took it with me on a recent trip to Europe, and had a chance to sample several of the food shops she mentions. What a pleasure to learn all about them beforehand--it made the experience so much more authentic!

This book is a wealth of information about some lovely places in Paris. We did visit a few of the places recommended (the book small enough to carry around)on the spur of the moment while we were in Paris and we were not disappointed. I plan to take the book with me if I ever visit Paris again.

My recent trip to Paris wouldn't have been half as much fun without this beautiful guide. It took me to restaurants and shops I never would have found on my own. I can't wait to go back -- with this book, of course.

An enlightening story about the humble, poor little shepherd girl who encountered the Mother of God and the tremendous impact it had on her life. Details and insights that kept me excitedly turning those pages.

This book is a wonderful resource for all who want to know Bernadette better. From her writtings one can see the depth of her faith. She saw all that occurred in her life as the will of GOD and she accepted everything that came her way. One learns that Bernadette carried her cross in life with acceptance and love. She suffered greatly and wanted to unite her suffering with Jesus' for the sake of all sinners.

In developing my own book on the famous apparitions at Massabielle (Lourdes: Font of Faith, Hope, & Charity, Paulist Press, Sept. 2007), I researched a great number of titles. None of them, however, gave me better insight into the real person of Bernadette Soubirous than A Holy Life. Thanks to Patricia McEachern's careful translation, English-speaking readers can appreciate the oftentimes difficult journey to sainthood through Bernadette's candid letters and journal entries as she lived out her sanctity in the motherhouse at Nevers. A true treasure -- it was like meeting the visionary in person!

In the initial account of the apparitions Dr. McEachern uses the method of drawing lines from various different accounts given by the Saint over several different years in order to present one comprehensive report. If you accept this methodology as valid, you will draw much from this book. I felt a bit uncomfortable realizing I was reading a mosaic of shards shattered and shorn from so many different sources and presented as her complete account, but perhaps such textual criticism does not present a problem to other readers. I would prefer to read the accounts in their entirety, including to the various ecclesial and legal authorities who questioned her, in chronological order, and piece together a conclusive report from that entirety. Here this work has been done for us, leaving only the golden threads from among the whole cloth. I would hope one day to see the fullest tapestry.

After that opening, the compiler of this volume does leave us a fairly representative collection of the Saint's letters, translated. Again I hope one day to see them in the original, including the regional dialect, and in chronological order, as here we find the intriguing and often difficult and treacherous work of translation done for us.

I also found the opening introduction touched by a persistent trait of other reports on this Saint, the disparagement of her family and conditions and education and mind, rather than a charitable embracing and comprehension. I am always uncomfortable to read such judgmental emphasis, yet here find it more balanced and contextualized than in earlier standard texts. The Saint herself suffered this from the first moments she reported the Visions, and for the rest of her life on earth, and accepted this suffering, for reasons she examines in this book, including unmentioned yet infinitely consoling comments by Our Lady herself, who was of similar age and education and conditions. I am not so holy and so feel deeply uncomfortable for the Saint suffering such mistreatment both during and after life, but I must resolve to convert by her very wise and holy and compassionate example, and by her own exhortations shared here in her own, translated hand.

A necessary addition to any Catholic spiritual library, and probably the best we can get for this Saint.