Europe Books

This guide is essential for all those traveling to Paris. I love that you can pick restaurants based on location or rating. Additionally, the essays describing the authors' trips were enjoyable to read. I found the ratings to be consistent and easy to follow, and would recommend this book to anyone planning a trip!

My husband and I just returned from a wonderful week in Paris. We set out to hit as many bistros as possible and this guide was a great help. We hit the following top picks and loved them all: Allard - probably the best frisee and lardons salad anywhere; Chardenoux - the raspberry gratin was heaven; Chez Georges - perfect in every way, one of our favorites - loved the lentil salad, sole georges and profiteroles; La Grille - the overall best experience, doesn't get any better, turbot for two was divine and the family atmosphere and personal attenion were icing on the cake; Le Voltaire - wonderfully clubby and the food was killer; and our last meal at La Petit Marguery was divine - the rabbit pate and grilled mushrooms for starters and the grand marnier souffle for finishers - wow. This book was the perfect fit for us - small, easy to use and absolutely accurate.

Just amazing. My wife and I visit Paris for ten days yearly... and this book is our dining directory. Absolutely reliable and accurate. Over the last two weeks, we visited six of the twelve Top Picks. And then seven of the Highly Recommended. We indulged in fois gras at least once and most often twice a day. Two additions to the book: Under new management, Benoit is much better, and more wonderful, than the last two years, but still as "Parisian", so be sure to insist on the main dining area instead of the back room. Reservations far in advance are important. Also, the most wonderful La Grille, the off-the-beaten-path home of the Turbot of the Century, is an absolute must. Retirement can't be too far off for Yves and the gracious Genevieve Cullerre. Get there while you can. If you love traditional French fare, this book is essential. I hope the Twenty First Century Edition will be updated often. We are counting on it.

An accurate assessment of many Paris bistros and small restaurants throughout the city. Amusing personal anecdotes and helpful hints on places to dine in all arrondissements drawn from years of experience. This guide is essential planning for the first-time as well as the seasoned traveler.

This book was sent as a gift last summer before three of my friends and I went to Paris last fall. It was one of the most helpful, concise tools for selecting eating places in Paris. It is so well organized, fits in one's handbag, and was helpful in selecting eating places that didn't "bust the budget" but were delightful. I think it is a must for the Paris traveler of many times(like me) or the first time visitor. Dom't leave home without it!

     "Fearsome Battle tells the story of a young American who enlisted in the Canadian Army before America went to war. The writing of Mr. Robert Rogge unceremoniously grabs the reader from the onset. An unusual aspect of Fearsome Battle is that this account has been written in the third person. Mr. Rogge had considerable difficulty writing of the horrors of war he had experienced first hand, from the first person or as seen through his eyes. However, he manages to capture the mind and attention of the reader by describing each account in the short memoir as if from a disinterested bystander reporting the chilling events as they unfolded.

     This World War II personal account narrates small snippets of horrific battlefield action as witnessed firsthand by Mr. Rogge. It delivers a masterful portrayal of a young man's innocent entry into combat and the fulfillment of his coming to age as a seasoned veteran. The war finally ends with his felling a German soldier just prior to hearing that the war has finally ended. The soldier was but a boy, maybe fourteen years of age, but one who would have killed his adversary had he been given the chance.

     Fearsome Battle keeps the reader on the edge of anticipation from the first page to the last.

     I highly recommend this book for any person interested in reading what is in the mind of a combat soldier who fully expects that the next moment in time will be his last.

     Mr. Rogge, Thank You, for an excellent observer's narrative of the brutality of war."

     Joe Richard, web master, World War II Stories -- In Their Own Words.

Using his considerable skills as a writer, Rogge drops the reader into the cage of war and unleashes its terrors and hardships on us. This book is the real deal. Its images linger and affect me still. I read it with horrible fascination and a growing appreciation for what these men endured to win the war.

Fearsome Battle: With The Canadian Army In World War II Europe is the gripping true memoir of Robert Rogge, a 22-year-old American volunteer who served with the Canadian Army during the perilous era of the second world war. Robert personally participated in the assault on Normandy on D-Day, and survived eleven months in the thick of battle until the war's end. Vividly graphic (almost to the point of disturbing) in portraying hand-to-hand combat, artillery bombardment, and the sad, sometimes gruesome job of picking up the dead after the fighting settled, Fearsome Battle is a candid and informative picture of the horrors the Greatest Generation endured to protect the world against Nazi ambitions and fascist intentions. Highly recommended reading and a welcome addition to the growing library of World War II memoirs and autobiographies.

This author tell his story in third person in order to keep the haunting reality of war at a manageable distance, yet he takes the reader into battle with his poignant tellng of it. Told in vignettes, the reader is not fettered by the minutia of a soldiers life, but feels it, tastes it, smells it nonetheless. Rogge exposes the poetic, celestial soul of humanity in the mundane savagery of war through the experiences of one weary, intrepid man who understands that the horrific and the sublime are complementary.

A realistic and grabbing account of war in the European Theater. As the Editor of the newsletter of the National Museum of the Pacific War, I read many accounts of combat on both the European and Pacific fronts. This extremely well written book gives an unflinching view into the shattering of boyhood ideals and the horrors and sacrifices of war. The book is notable because it gives the unique view of an American volunteer serving with the Canadian Army in Europe; in addition, the author's use of the third person allows him to talk about things that otherwise might have been too painful to share openly with others. I highly recommend this narrative which goes a long way to dispell any of the so-called glories and glamour associated with the waging of war.

My grandfather is pictured on the cover with Sgt. Bowen, at the bottom left. The vivid details in Sgt. Bowen's book make you feel like you are in 1944, watching all of the action! His book brought to life my grandfather's experiences. I still cannot comprehend what these soldiers endured, and I am so grateful that my grandfather made it back to Maine to start a family and a new life, after seeing so many friends perish. So, I am pestering him to write a book about his experiences now!

Sgt Bowen's account of his time in the 101st during WWII is excellently written and includes much of what is missing in other 101st Airborne histories/memoirs. Veterans recollections of war are those of a war fought locally next to your closest friends; Sgt Bowen's is very much in this vein. Sgt Bowen is an astute observer and reporter of his wartime activity in Normandy, Holland, and Germany. His inclusion of being wounded, captured and subsequent interment in medical units, POW camps, and release provide a unique glimpse into this aspect of WWII veterans.
Sgt Bowen has produced a book which is a thoughtful addition to the 101st Airborne's WWII history; definitely one not to be missed.

Bowen writes in his book about a private named Harold Zimburg. If you were to search the national archieves for this name nothing will come up. The name doesnt exist. But,he is a real person...the man in the book called Harold Zimburg is my grandfather, Bowen just got his name wrong.I know this based on my grandfather's POW records, the stories he told while he was alive and the fact that his picture is in the book. Although Bowen got his name incorrect...it was very nice getting to read about my grandfather in World War 2 since he is now deceased. I am very excited there is a book out there that talks about the 401st!

Robert Bowen, who lived in Maryland, in 1943 went down to Florida to have basics (if he finishes he would join the 104 infantry division). As fate had it Bowen and a couple other of his 104th friends would be transferred to Fort Bragg where they would join the 401st regiment of the screaming eagles, the elite 101st. Bowen fights in Normandy where he was injured in the ankle. He also fights in the 72-day campaign in Holland (operation Market Garden) and there he participates in the defense of the Island. Bowen also fights at Bastogne but is captured when a German armored division finally over runs Bowen's and the rest of his surviving friend's position. The rest of his book is about trying to stay alive in the POW camp where he and all of his friends are at the edge of death because of the small and some times no rations, and dysentery. Bowen then explains his life after the War, which as you will see is quite sad.

After I first interviewed Mr. Bowen in 1998 I had tears in eyes. These feelings of sacrifice, loss, suffering, courage, and heroism surface again in this superb book. FIGHTING WITH THE SCREAMING EAGLES takes you back to the foxhole.

this is with no doubt the best book i have ever read , it is filled with so many mixed emotions and the way it is seen through the eyes of a dog makes it ever more interesting . the feelings that you feel when you read it are a mixture of sadness , joy and wonder . you will never know what is comeing next and that just makes you want to read it even more . belive me when i say this is the best book you could ever get

This book if absoloutly fantabulous beyond belief. How buetiflly the words are used. descriptive of every detail. Extroudinary. I could read it a thousand times and never get bored. Buy it now! its great!

In 1381, English folk rebelled against the oppressive system of serfdoms. Cruel lords and masters ruled villages of ordinary folk with no say over the heavy taxation and unjust laws.

For a simple hunting dog, human politics meant little to nothing. As the canine friend to Rufus, a simple man, the old dog is happy to keep her place by the fire, take her master hunting, and sleep in the house.

Everything changes shortly after the birth of her latest litter of puppies. Soldiers take Rufus and his wife, Comfort, away, leaving behind their three children. The dog ensures the children's safety and returns to find only one of her puppies has remained. Together, she and her young pup do their best to survive. She experiences freedom, captivity, and reunion, all in the names of love, loyalty, and survival.

Originally published in 1998, FIRE, BED & BONE is a dog's observation of the horrors life sometimes presents us. This telling of a significant event in history is done in a way that will engage kids, teach them, and show them a wonderful story. Using a dog's point of view (there are no talking animals in this book) to portray the way of men is a powerful tool, and in this case, it is well used.

This book should be a leading candidate for classroom use, as well as for simple reading enjoyment. The writing is easy to follow and sentimental without growing sappy. I definitely recommend this title.

Reviewed by Christina Wantz Fixemer
10/26/2006

What a brilliant book! This is set at the time of the 1381 Peasants' Revolt in England, and it shows the causes and events and results of that social upheaval in a way that is quite sympathetic to the peasants' side of the story without glossing over the mob violence that was involved. The book manages to be dense with factual information without being boring or preachy. However, the narrator is a dog -- a dog accustomed to a life of good care, with the comfort of the fire, a bed, and an occasional bone shared from the meager resources of its owners. And the dog tells us not only about the impact of social unrest on the people but also on their animals. The reading level is suitable for average fifth graders, but the issues are powerful and complex enough to interest older students of any reading level. This is a wonderful narrative of human events from an animal's perspective and should be placed along the classics of this genre.

Branford has crafted a powerful piece of historical fiction about fourteenth century England and has done so in a manner that honors the Young Adult audience's often ignored right to realistic, unromantic history. Her narrator, a wise, nameless hound is endearing but never cute. Through her eyes we witness the brutality and social upheaval of the late Middle Ages. This sage old dog, so unlike the traditional, overwrought animal narrator, provides a sense of detachment from events like the Wat Taylor rebellion that allows us to feel the peasant's righteousness as well as to cringe at their senseless mob violence. Above all, get ready to breath this one in. Fire, Bed & Bone is so splendidly redolent with the real, visceral scents of the age that you will inhale it as much as you read it.

The book is awesome and has whet my appetite for more history. At first I did not like the divided history approach of highlighting Rome, Judea and China in various chapters but after reading through the book it did seem to motivate one to read through to get to the next continuation (kind of like a cliff hanger). This tended to highlight more of Rome & Judea and only a small amount of China.

The late historian Barbara Tuchman wrote a wonderful book called "A Distant Mirror" about the calamitous 14th century. It is absolutely spell-binding for history enthusiasts. While Klingaman's book is not quite as well written, it does a remarkable job of presenting the world-shattering changes that took place during the First Century A.D. (or C.E. if you prefer). As a Christian of the Episcopalian stripe, I enjoyed the "context" it provides for understanding the time of Jesus. I'd recommend it to anyone with an interest in the subject. Bring along your thinking cap because it's very thought provoking!

This book is written with style and some wit, bringing long dead shakers & movers to life. Very entertaining with some clever insights from the author who also presents historical figures with personalities (accurately or not - it does'nt matter), opinions etc.. Bloody good read.

If you have ever wondered about the events that shaped leaders and everyman, thousands of years ago, this is an entertaining read, considering it is non-fiction. The real life events are presented in a way that brings characters into stories that otherwise would seem to be so long ago and nameless.

A great line was "At the dawn of the first century, the empire over which Augustus ruled,-with the aid of only a rudimentary civil service-encompassed nearly eighty million people and ranged across ten thousand miles of frontier..."

A good read for the context getting of where we came from to get where we are today as peoples on this globe.

This book is wonderfully written, a pleasure to read. I give it five stars even though it is somewhat lop-sided: although it claims to be a history of Rome, China, and Judea in the first century, the author shows a decidedly western bias. Counting the sections, I see 14 on Rome, 11 on Judea, and only 7 on China. The author seems more sure-footed, and more excited, when describing Rome.

However, overall I found this a great read, enough so that it inspired to get some of the authors other books.

For most presses, East European studies is a dying breed, consigned to the periphery by Europe's metamorphoses and other global challenges. However, Granville (history, Stanford Univ.) examines an event that retains stinging memories almost 50 years later--the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. The author explored archives accessible only after the Cold War, and had extraordinary cooperation from archivists in Moscow, Budapest, and elsewhere. Kadar, Nagy, Rakosi, Tito, Khrushchev, Eisenhower, Dulles, and other personalities, as well as arcane communist and democratic bureaucracies, are revealed through countless archival fragments. Granville is at her best telling the interwoven story of 1956. Ultimately, Granville's analysis leads to a no-fault conclusion, suggesting that misperceptions and misconceptions among all actors led to the disastrous outcome. Recommended for graduate students and above.-- D.N. Nelson, University of New Haven

Johanna Granville is one of the most industrious and talented of the scholars who have seized upon new archival opportunities to deepen our understanding of the Cold War. For _The First Domino_, the author has scoured archives in Europe and the United States in an effort to find out how the principal actors arrived at decisions regarding the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. Matters, as she writes, were not as simple as they once appeared. Nikita Khrushchev and other Soviet leaders bad difficulty, for example, deciding whether or not to suppress the uprising by force. In fact, they voted not to intervene one day (October 28)before they ordered decisive military action (October 31). Some of what she has uncovered is already known: that Imre Nagy denounced some of his countrymen during his years in Soviet Russia (1930-44) and that he did not invite the initial Soviet invasion of October 23-24. But thanks to Granville's linguistic abilities, she has shed new light on the seemingly inexplicable conduct of Poland's Wladyslaw Gomulka and Yugoslavia's Josip Broz Tito. Moreover, she has helped to clarify Janos Kadar's decision to betray Nagy and the revolution. In a particularly compelling chapter, Granville examines the role the United States played before and during the revolution. She concludes that the Eisenhower Administration's talk of "rollback" and "liberation," when combined with U.S. intelligence operations and psychological warfare, may have led Soviet leaders to fear a U.S. intervention and, thus, to opt for a harder line. Above all, however, Granville reminds us of historical contingency. Those who have studied the revolution have sometimes taken the view that Hungarians and Soviets acted out of necessity. Granville herself thinks that given Hungarians' historic detestation of Russia and communism, revolution was bound to erupt; and Nagy's "trial and probably ... execution were inevitable." She should have written "were very likely," because elsewhere she observes that if the Soviets had removed Stalinist dictator Matyas Rakosi sooner, there might not have been a revolution; and that had there been no Polish crisis of October 19-20, Budapest's students might not have demonstrated on October 23. "No event," she wisely concludes, "is ever predestined; individuals can make rational choices to change the course of history at any given moment." ---Lee Congdon, Professor of History, James Madison University._History: Review of New Books_ (Summer 2004),v 32, i4: p 147.

Dr. Granville's book is without question a first-rate, well-researched monograph. She uses Hungarian documents that even Hungarians have not read, sometimes presenting them in dialogue form (Chapter 3). The books reads like a novel in some places. (...)

This long-awaited review of archival records dealing with the Hungarian uprising of 1956 is destined to appear on numerous Cold War historians' bibliographies. It is a meticulously researched study, a grand example of erudite scholarship in its truest sense. Dr. Granville's examination of declassified documents is exhaustively and exhaustingly thorough.

Johanna Granville's The First Domino: International Decision Making during the Hungarian Crisis of 1956 (...), a pioneering work on East European Cold War history, confirms that when President Eisenhower had his chance to redeem the Republican campaign pledge to "roll back" the Soviet occupation of Hungary, he failed and thus perpetuated that occupation for three more decades.
This is a remarkable study of Cold War history because the author, at home in Russian and other languages, has availed herself of recently opened Soviet and other archives to describe how Hungary became the first "domino" in a process that "resulted ultimately in the Soviet Union's loss of hegemony over Eastern Europe in 1989."
The Hungarian revolt resulted in more than 2,000 deaths and the flight of over 200,000 refugees to the West. It is worth noting that a far smaller group of earlier Hungarian refugees, who fled to America from a Nazi-endangered Europe, helped build the first atomic bomb during World War II.
Chapter 6 of "The First Domino" is the most fascinating, since it explores U.S. psychological warfare and covert activities in Eastern Europe during the 1950s, including broadcasts by Radio Free Europe.---Washington Times, March 21, 2004 by Arnold Beichman, Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University

Anyone in search of first-rate movie material--whether screenwriter, director-producer, or development company--could do worse than to check out Rita Kramer's Flames in the Field, the true story of four courageous British agents who were dropped into occupied France during World War II to organize resistance groups against the Nazis. The fact that the agents were young women only adds to the poignancy of what is at once a tale of suspense and intrigue and a tragic story of possible betrayal. Biographer Kramer (she wrote the definitive life the 19th-century educator Maria Montessori) expertly recounts how these women and their colleagues sought to carry out Winston Churchill's injunction to "set Europe ablaze," all the while unknowingly caught in a Byzantine web of scheming on both sides. Kramer's original research (both among archives and survivors) is a substantial contribution to the scholarship on the cult of intelligence, and her elegant prose and flawless sense of pace make the book a page-turner, effortlessly readable. But it's the subjects themselves, too--the men and women of a heroic time--as well as the complexity of motives and events in a situation where almost any moral choice is tragic, that make her story such a stunning tableau.

These stories will break your heart. Four courageous women go to their deaths after being captured one by one, usually because of treachery on the ground and sometimes stupid bureaucratic blundering in London. Rita Kramer -- whose abilities as a writer and researcher were already well established -- gives life and vitality to four forgotten heroines of history's most devastating conflict. "Flames in the Field" is a keeper.

"Flames in the Field" is a mesmerizing, eye-opening account of a World War II secret operation, still little known, and of four of its women operatives. It is the most vivid kind of historical writing and though it tells a story whose terrible ending the reader knows from the beginning-- all four died in a concentration camp in France because of their work-- it reads like a mystery or suspense tale. This is a book you cannot put down, because of the tension the author maintains as she weaves together different strands from different people, places and politics. The complex tapestry that results illuminates not just the role of women in the Special Operations Executive (SOE), not just the kind of anti-Semitism that the French as well as the Nazis practiced, but the Machievellian triage that goes on in wartime, the inescapable treacheries, the score-keeping and the record-keeping, the pettinesses and the heroism. This is one of the few history books I know that I will want to read again.

Flames in the Field is an exciting book that tells the story of women agents who operated behind enemy lines during World War II. The research is impeccable, and the story is fascinating and well-written. A must read for anyone interested in World War II history, as well as for aficionados of women's history.

Flames in the Field is a searing account of the heroic efforts of British and French resistance fighters during World War II. Rita Kramer manages to combine both historical detail and subtle character studies in a story that has suspenseful and surprising twists. Although the book is meticulously researched, it reads more like a spy novel that you can't put down. I recommend this book to anyone interested in reading about the unsung heroes who helped to vanquish the Nazis; the under-reported role of women in that courageous mission and the political machinations that turned heroes into pawns in a larger game plan. This book is exciting to read and an important contribution to uncovering the hidden story behind the Allied victory.

Everything as promised; prompt delivery of pristine copy of the book

Julian Barnes in his excellent survey of this book in NY Review of Books states that Brown shows how Flaubert in the few intimate relations of his life preferred the memory of the experience in solitude where he could control it, to the actual experience itself. He cites an instance where Flaubert wrote to the woman closest to him Louise Colet explaining to her that if people truly loved each other they could do so without seeing each other for ten years. Colet appeared to be somewhat skeptical of the matter.
Barnes also says that Brown in telling the story of Flaubert's relation to his long- time friend Maxine du Camp shows how the lifelong friends nonetheless aimed differently in life, and had subtle criticisms of their best - friends' enterprises. So Flaubert upon hearing that du Camp had been accepted as member of the 'French Academy' hinted that it was an honor not at all worth receiving. So du Camp criticized Flaubert for being stuck all the years in the same attitude he had early on.
Barnes says that Brown's book is truly admirable though it contains no significant great revelation about a writer who has fascinated more than one devoted biographer.
Nonetheless he makes it clear that this is by and large a first- rate biography, and one well- worth reading.

In his book, "Flaubert: A Biography," Frederick Brown portrays his book by giving the readers a closer look at Paris during a period of radical change. He writes his book to illustrate a wonderful biography Madame Bovary as Gustave Flaubert. Interestingly and what makes this book fascinating is how Frederick Brown keeps his distance away from the audience to make us decide what the apparent contradictions in Flaubert's life really is. The 24 chapters not only offer a vivid, detailed, and accurate account of Flaubert's life, they also provide relevant historical background for Europe, France, and Rouen, Flaubert's birthplace. Flaubert (for those who don't know) was romantic and optimist yet his most famous work required a degree of discipline to keep his emotions out of it. He loathed the bourgeois, but perhaps was one of the greatest symbols of the social class in the middle nineteenth century when he hugged fame. Flaubert's loving relationship with his mistress Louise Colet really summed up the complexity of the subject of this fine work Mr. Brown provides in his biographical masterpiece in literature today. I really love this book a lot...since I am a fan of Gustave Flaubert. I highly recommend for those who are intellect and love to learn more about the life of Falubert and his career. Overall, 9/10!

I understand that another author's biography was more psychological and I understand that Frederick Brown wanted to examine Flaubert in a more social, historical context. I just wish Brown had come up with a slightly different title for his biography of my all-time favorite writer. Titling the biography *Flaubert* lent me to think the biography would be more psychological, rather than historical. Perhaps Brown should have considered something like *Flaubert and Normandy* or *Flaubert's Normandy.* The historical passages are well done, but I wonder if they could have been trimmed a bit. Though I have been trained in European history, I gritted my teeth while reading every word. I wonder if Brown thought to himself, "Now let me get through this so that we can get back to Flaubert's literary tribulations and relationships." Flaubert's literary struggles and relationships are the most fascinating part of this biography.

My gripes aside, this biography is densely (in the best sense of the word) and beautifully written. Flaubert's best and not so great moments are limned gorgeously. The most touching aspect of the man is how good he was to his niece Caroline and how she honored his memory. I wished I had been Willa Cather when she encountered Caroline to talk about "les ouevres de mon oncle."

'Madame Bovary,' Flaubert's signature work celebrates 150 years of basically continuous publication. Shocking at the time because of its portrayal of the infidelities of a married woman, its publication caused Flaubert to be tried for lewdness.

Flaubert, like many writers was a tortured soul. One page from his original manuscript of 'Madame Bovary,' shows pained writing, much crossing out and re-writing. For him writing was not something he enjoyed, but more along the lines of something that he had to do. The words did not flow easily and fast, instead he struggled over each sentence, each word. But at the end, a book still in print in perhaps a dozen editions in English alone a century and a half later.

This new biography gives a look at both the life of Flaubert and also of his times. Here is a picture of the literary world that was Paris in the middle 1800's. Flaubert observed first hand the Revolution of 1848 and the Franco-Prussian War of 1871. While not a history of these events, Mr. Brown presents a view of them from their impact on Flaubert.

This is likely to remain the definitive biography of Flaubert for many years.

Guido and his spouse, Maria, live in the beautiful city of Florence in a small apartment over the bakery they inherited from Guido's father. Although they work extremely hard and lead frugal lives, the money they generate from the bakery is simply not enough to cover their living costs. A dwindling customer base is the main reason for this sorry state of affairs, for Guido, unlike his father, skimped on the key ingredients and made flavorless dough. Although Guido resorted to selling off their furniture, piece by piece, Maria drew the line when he sold their bed and she demanded that he find a new one.

Serendipity leads Guido to an extraordinary bed shop, where he acquires what is, unbeknownst to him, a magical bed. This bed takes Guido and Maria to a magical town far away, where a master baker gives them a special kind of yeast. When Guido and Maria bake bread with the unusual yeast, the delicious smells and tastes bring them so many new customers that their financial constraints disappear virtually overnight. Unfortunately, they learn the hard way that such a gift is not to be squandered through greed and short-sightedness.

The Flying Bed offers readers a powerful set of lessons about entrepreneurship and poverty, cleverly woven into an imaginative story with stunning images. Children and adults alike will appreciate the interesting plot, the well-developed characters, and the eye-catching scenes from Florence and the bakery. This first-rate book makes a valuable addition to any collection of children's literature with substantive content and dramatic illustrations. The Flying Bed puts fun and magic into the business of learning economics.

In Florence, Italy, Guido inherited a bakery from his father. He isn't a good baker, and he and his wife barely have enough income to survive. Gradually, Guido sells all of their furniture to make ends meet. When he sells their bed, Maria says, "' Enough is enough!' she shouted. 'I can't sleep without a bed. A bed I want and a bed I'll have!'" Guido searches all over Florence and is finally given an elaborately carved bed by a mysterious seller of beds. When he and Maria go to bed that night, they discover that they have been given a magical bed. It flies nightly out of the window -- carrying its occupants.


With a lilting story wrought with the mystery and magic of an Italian fairytale, the author presents an undeserving protagonist who fails on all counts -- except for his very wise choice of a wife. The realistic
paintings (except for a bed that flies) are exquisitely detailed and crafted. The painting of the bed flying over the tiled rooftops of Florence, with every one of the multitude of tiles shaded and distinct, is masterful. The illustrator's pictures of baked goods look good enough to eat. An amazing, perfect duet.

Nancy Willard weaves a wonderful fairy tale of modern tones emanating life's little lessons. John Thompson's magical pigmented canvas is freshly baked and alluring to the senses.
See also Your Favorite Seuss: A Baker's Dozen by the One and Only Dr. Seuss

Enjoyable story, and very nice pictures. It also prompted my son to ask questions about the greed of the baker and which led to a discussion of what people value.

Nancy Willard's THE FLYING BED features warm paintings by John Thompson, 2006 Hamilton King award winner, as it surveys the end of summer in Florence and a magic shop crammed with beds. A woman's offer to show off the best bed of all results in some surprises in this fun fantasy for grades 2-3.

In one sense, the events in the book, although well written, are remote from us. The so-called communist menace is destroyed, so Russia is not formost in our minds. But the process by which a society can so fall into ruin as to make Lenin viable is revealing. The fatal combination of scapegoating and failed despotism is something the reader find in today's world news as well.

What shines through undimmed from Fuller's account is the sheer incompetence and paranoia of the Imperial Russian government. The mobilisation of the Russian army for way against Germany and Austria-Hungary was massive in the numbers that turned out. But the logistics were primitive and wholly inadequate, both for the numbers of men that had to be supplied, and the distances across eastern Europe for which this was done. Plus of course the inept battlefield decisions made by the Russian generals.

As a desperate search for scapegoats for the resultant defeats, the Russian government then shot hundreds of purported spies. Based on the flimsiest of hearsay. To an American reader, who perhaps is familiar with the US military system, or who has been following the Guantanomo controversy, whatever your views on that, the book's descriptions of Imperial Russian military justice can be shocking.

Fuller's book is thoroughly documented, with extensive footnotes that suggest considerable, lengthy research was performed.

William Fuller, in his new evaluation of potential causes of the February Revolution, has opened a chapter that many people have not previously considered - that espionage and internal sabotage led to the abdication of the Tsar.

At first blush, it seems to be a far-fetched theory, but as the reader continues through the tale, it becomes more & more believable. Fuller offers the reader dossiers on both Miasoedov and Sukhomlinov, who he claims are the two people that really led to this wave of "spy mania" that was pivotal in the downfall of the Romanov Dynasty.

Suffice it to say that it is critical to know that the February Revolution started as a soldier's mutiny - without this piece of information, the book makes a little less sense, though it certainly is easily understandable. Once the reader connects the soldiers to Miasoedov, who was a gendarme and a soldier, and Sukhomlinov, who was the minister of war in WWI era Russia, the concept of internal subversion and the concern that spies were "everywhere" easily leads the reader to conclude that yes, indeed, spy mania was a contributing factor to Tsar Nicholas becoming the ex-Tsar and a political prisoner.

The book is easy to read, despite the fact that it is an academic text. The author lays out his premise well, and supports it nicely with evidence, primarily from contemporary sources such as trial transcripts, interviews with accomplices or eyewitnesses, and newspapers. I heartily recommend this book to anyone interested in the causes of the Russian Revolution - it is an interesting revision to the standard concept that the Bolsheviks came into power strictly because of economic difficulties in Russia at this time.

When something bad happens, be it in the military, the government, or business, the first thought is to look for people to blame. In the cast of Pearl Harbor the top leaders of the Army and Navy (Short and Kimmel) were immediately fired and an investigation began into how this could have happened.

In 1915 Russia made a very poor showing in their battles with Germany. Obviously it couldn't have been the Russians fault, so they had to find fault. Lt. Col. Miasoedov was tried (in a two hour trial) and executed. The crime, of which he was not guilty, was of spying for Germany. A year later the Minister of War, General Sukhomlinov was arrested for the same crime.

These trials are used by Fuller as a starting point to examine the Russian government from 1915 until the revolution in 1917. It brings a great deal of understanding to how the Tsar government was corrupt and ready to be overthrown.

I really enjoyed this book, since I have always considered the period immediately preceding and following the Russian revolution very interesting. The author's theory is that the widely held belief that Russia was riddled with spies during World War I undermined the validity of the imperial government in the eyes of most Russians and eventually brought down the Russian government. The feeling among the Russian people was that only corruption at all levels of government could have caused them to be losing the war so badly since they had a strong sense of pride that made them believe that if only the war were run competently that they should prevail. A secondary cause, according to the author, was the belief among Russians that entire groups of fellow Russians - the Germans, the Jews, and the Muslims, for example - were working with the enemy powers, thus turning the people against each other as well.

The abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, made for the sake of military victory, brought down the whole structure of Russian statehood along with it. For all its immense territory, the Russian empire was a fragile artificial structure that was held together by the man-made links of the bureaucracy, police, and army - links whose unquestioned authority vanished along with the tsar. Russia's 150 million inhabitants were bound neither by strong economic interests nor by a sense of national identity due to its great ethnic diversity.

Although the author accurately pinpoints the causitive factors of the overthrow of tsarist Russia, I think that he makes the mistake of conveying the traits of modern-day well-fed literate Westerners upon the poor largely illiterate Russian peasants, only a generation removed from serfdom, who were just trying not to starve in those times. With the authority of the tsar gone, the promise of bread and an end to the war is what ultimately caused the soldiers to abandon the army and the citizens to take up arms against their government.

If you are interested in this period of time, the author certainly puts forth some interesting theories and also talks about lesser known characters, events, and attitudes leading up to the revolution. For those reasons alone it is worth reading.