Switzerland Books

I found this book to be of a really great help in planning my trip. The book provides difficulty rating for each day of multi-day treks. There are also suggestions on how to split 5-6 days treks into shorter ones with "how-to-get-there" directions.
There are also several suggestions for trekking with kids, which was of a particular interest for me as I am planning to trek in Austrian Alps with my wife and a 3-years old kid.

This book show you the best way to discover the Valais' Alps : by walking. Valais,the mountainous part of Switzerland, is just the best Europe can bring you : wonderful casttles, living history, and splendid moutains. If you want to discover the Alps, then buy this book. In Valais, it is like all the picture about Switzerland, Heidi, ... coming true in front of you. Buy this book, you won't be disapointed.

This book is absolutely fantastic - and a very entertaining read! I can't think of another book or resource anywhere that even comes close to providing such useful information. The others that I've read are outdated and just don't thouroughly cover the information like this book does. Everything I need for my next visit to Germany and Austria is in this book, and Shepard presents it all in a clever writing style that kept me interested from start to finish. I especially appreciated that he never watered down the information or skipped over important details. I am most definitely recommending this book to all of my friends.

Though there are large numbers of books on the woman suffrage movements in the U.S. and Britain, and a smattering of books on the suffrage movements of other nations, this is one of the very few books to look at what comparing these movements can tell us about the ingredients for success of these movements (and the ingredients for failure). An important and lucid step in the scholarship on woman suffrage movements and social movements more generally.

This book is phenominal! In a catagory of study where there is so much false information circulating, Monter stays close to the facts. The Jura Region discussed by Monter, is the area between modern day France and Switzerland. This area is also one of the earliest (not to mention most heated) areas of witch trial concentration. Monter gives a very localized and thorough discription of the trials in this area, as well as a very well supported argument on the reasons why this area is so fertile for witchcraft accusations. A must have for anyone who is interested in witch trials.

This book has it all. As I was flipping through pages after pages, this book really kept me from stopping. Notice this is only an atlas, not a book that explains the functions. The pictures are great, meaning you'll see striations in muscles and very realistic bone structures, unlike many other anatomy books. You'll even see some of the X-rays from real people. Other than the price, this is one of the best anatomy atlas book out there.

Vassily Smyslov is one of the greats of chess and this tournament victory is one of the greatest ever chess sporting performances. Facing a field which included such titans as Keres, Bronstein, Reshevsky and Petrosian, Smyslov shattered the oppposition and thus secured for himself the sole qualifying slot to face the great Botvinnik in a match for the world title. Combined with the companion Hardinge Simpole volume on the World Championship Candidates Tournament 1956 this book begins a record of staggering tournament expertise and determination by the immortal Smyslov.

Written by eye witness chess journalist Barry Wood, Member of the English Olympiad team, Chess Correspondent for the Daily Telegraph and for many years Editor-in-chief of Chess Magazine..

This book is an easy read for any preteen to adult. The elements of love, tragety, adventure, authenticity are very compelling. The typical confinement of having to read a book cover to cover are released through the layout, photos and place index making the book a great travelers guide and resource for culture study.
The love letters and poems pulled at my heartstrings.

Preface to the review: I have to admit that it took a lot of trolling around before I found a book to review this Wednesday. It's not that I don't have a lot of as yet un-reviewed books that I like. The problem is I read some of them a long time ago. The other problem is that while a lot of them feature very obviously awesome/strong female characters, many of them are written by men. Which is great. It's just given me pause because my initial plan was books with strong female characters written by women authors. Given my recent difficulties, though, I have decided to lift the female author rule because it's just getting too hard. That said, I apparently read this book in 2001 but only realized it after checking if it was on my goodreads account as read. To be fair, 2001 was squarely during my "book-a-day" reading phase so my forgetting it might say more about me than about the book. But in the spirit of full-disclosure I thought that you, my readers, should have the full story. And now you do. (And, in the sake of even fuller disclosure, the review was late because I wound up rereading the entire book and it took longer than I thought.)

Sharon Creech won the Newbery Medal for "the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children" in 1994 for her novel Walk Two Moons. Bloomability, from 1998, is one of Creech's later novels for children.

Thirteen-year-old Domenica Santolina Doone, known to almost everyone as Dinnie, does not have what most people would consider a mundane life, let alone an average one.

"In my first life, I lived with my mother, and my older brother and sister, Crick and Stella, and with my father when he wasn't on the road."

As Dinnie's father, a Jack-of-all-trades by name and choice, moves across the country in search of new "opportunities," Dinnie and her family follow.

"By the time I was twelve, we'd followed my father from Kentucky to Virginia to North Carolina to Tennessee to Ohio to Indiana to Wisconsin to Oklahoma to Oregon to Texas to California to New Mexico. My things fit in one box."

There was also a stint in Arkansas so brief that it escaped Dinnie's recollection. As some readers might have guessed, this lifestyle did not always work out for the family. The crux of the novel begins when Dinnie makes this series of observations:

"Dad was on the road, Crick was in jail, and Stella was having a baby.

And that was the last week of my first life."

That's when Dinnie is kidnapped by two complete strangers. At least, that's how it seems to Dinnie. No one else seems to agree. But, just because she met her Aunt Sandy and Uncle Max twice before, it doesn't make them like her real family. At least, not right away.

Dinnie's aunt and uncle take her off to Switzerland for an opportunity of her own as a student the school where Max will be headmaster and Sandy a teacher. At first, Dinnie doesn't see how any of that is an opportunity. But then she gets to the school and starts to meet some of the other students. Coming from all over the world, and from many different cultures, everyone is different. For the first time in Dinnie's life, she isn't the only stranger. Miles away from her family and in a foreign country, Dinnie might finally have a chance to find herself.

Along the way, she also finds friends (and family) that she never would have encountered anywhere else. Creech does a great job here of showing different cultures. The book is a nice example of a truly international book. It also might teach readers a thing or two about the importance of tolerance. In fact, I'm sure it could be used in a variety of classes as a teaching tool even if I can't get into all of the ideas in this review. It's also written in a very authentic, humorous voice.

The title of this book, Bloomability, refers to possibilities--a recurring theme in the novel. Dinnie isn't happy about a lot of the things she has to do, but as she soon learns, every change is an opportunity and a new possibility. On a personal level, this book is actually a really relevant review for the week, and I'm sure most other readers would also find it has some valuable insight to offer during times of change.

This is my sons pursuasive essay for his advance language arts class. His assignment was to talk another classmate into reading this book. He has enjoyed this class and the other readings. I had to constantly remind him to finish this book.

"Sharon Creech is a Newberry Medal author, yet I can't recommend her book, Bloomability, to my classmates. She can't relate to American 6th grade students. It's the worst reading assignment I've had in 6th grade. I am so glad I'm done reading it.

I would have like to read about technology and science instead of about the mountains and how beautiful and white they are. The author uses many words from European languages which could be cool, but half the time, didn't explain the meaning of the words. It made it hard to concentrate on the story. I like books like the girl trilogy by Lauren Myracle. The girls talk about boys and secrets.

The Language Arts Class had more choices of novels to read than Advanced. Doing so many assignments on the same boring book got old. I feel like I said the same thing over and over. Would the curriculum committee please consider giving the advanced students more choices for their module five novel."

Bloomability by Sharon Creech is an exquisite book that makes me want to try something new. This book gets five out of five stars because there is nothing wrong with this book. This is an excellent book that leaves you thinking like the characters. Readers that like other Sharon Creech books or like Linda Urban will love Bloomability. In Bloomability Dinnie moves to Switzerland without her family and feels lost. Read Bloomability to find out if she stays in Switzerland.

Bloomability is a book about adventure and the great things that can come from them. This book is about twelve year old Domenica Santolina Doone, and what she has learned from moving from place to place. Following her father, she keeps herself from getting attached to anywhere or anyone because everything is gone before she knows it.

In this book, Dinnie is taken to Switzerland with her Aunt Sandy and her Uncle Max. Dinnie is confused and scared and doesn't know why she was taken to Switzerland with her aunt and uncle. She decides that she was "kidnapped". This book is about Dinnie and her adventures that she has with her friends Lila, Mari, Belen, Keisuke and Guthrie. Dinnie's friends teach her that life is too short to not enjoy every moment, and that its okay to let people into your "bubble". Along the way of Dinnie's adventures, she learns that sometimes life gives you forks in the road, and that either way you go it was meant to be. Throughout the book, Dinnie is trying to decide if she is falling for Guthrie, and when something happens to him she realizes how special he really is. Will Guthrie be okay and will they get together? Will Dinnie ever see her family again? Find out in Bloomability!

This is the best book I have read in a while; it is really a breath of fresh air. The characters are more complex, and the story line is more interesting, than any of her past books. Therefore I don't recommend it to novice readers. It is true beauty.

"Banner in the Sky" brings you to the summit of excitement and beyond. It is a near masterpiece from start to finish. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who has an itch for a good mountain climbing adventure. There are a good choice of words and keeps you hanging.

Rudi is a 16-year-old boy who has been stuck as a dishwasher at the Beau Site Hotel, a hotel that his family owns. He would rather be scaling mountains, something that he is forbidden to do because of the death of his father. After saving a great mountain climber, Captain John Winter, they become close friends. On a mountain climb with Winter, Rudi is proved to have some greatness, but still has a lot to learn. Rudi's dream is to climb the Citadel, believed to be the only unclimbable mountain in the world. One night, Rudi decides to sneak out to climb it and adventure comes.

I liked mostly everything about the book except how Rudi's conflict with his family about the mountain is resolved. Rudi's mother just decides that she will allow him to climb the Citadel when she finds out that that's what he's doing.

"Banner in the Sky" brings you to the summit of excitement and beyond. It is a masterpiece from start to finish. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who has an itch for a good mountain climbing adventure. There are a good choice of words and keeps you hanging.

Rudi is a 16-year-old boy in Europe in 1865 who has been stuck as a dishwasher at the Beau Site Hotel, a hotel that his family owns. He would rather be scaling mountains, something that he is forbidden to do because of the death of his father. After saving a great mountain climber, Captain John Winter, they become close friends. On a mountain climb with Winter, Rudi is proved to have some greatness, but still has a lot to learn. Rudi's dream is to climb the Citadel, believed to be the only unclimbable mountain in the world. One night, Rudi decides to sneak out to climb it and adventure comes.

I liked mostly everything about the book except how Rudi's conflict with his family about the not climbing mountains is resolved. Rudi's mother just decides that she will allow him to climb the Citadel when she finds out that that's what he's doing. I do love that Rudi conquers the mountain, though.

I just finished reading Banner in the Sky and really liked it. It was a quick read and hard to put down. Some of the things I found exciting were, without giving away the story, the setting and characters. They made the story exciting. The setting was in the Swiss Alps in 1865. Rudi Matt lived in Kurtal and wanted to climb the Citadel. In real life Kurtal is Zermatt and the Citadel is the Matterhorn. One of the main characters, John Winter, is a lot like Edward Whymper, first man to climb the Matterhorn. The way the author told the story was realistic, because he was a mountaineer himself. He climbed Mount Everest in 1965. My two favorite characters were Captain Winter and Rudi. They both wouldn't give up when they ran into problems. I recommend this book to anyone who likes adventure books and mountain climbing.

The Disney movie, Third Man on the Mountain, was based on this book, so I had to read it. Excellent read. While the movie had extra plot line, characters--the book goes into the thoughts and feelings of this young man who is going to climb the mountain that his father died on. The memorable moments for me were when he took shelter in the cave his father died in while heroically trying to keep his friend from freezing. And the prayer of course that drove away the terrors of the mountain. The local climbers believed that demons ruled that mountain.

Back in the days before all the peaks of the Alps were conquered, this is a story about a young man who will help conquer the last unclimbed peak. Son of a mountain climber who died on that last peak, Rudi is forbidden to climb. But it is in his blood and he obeys the call to brave the peak.

This is back in the days before polartec fleece, belaying equipment, or retractable hooks. Rudi and the other men climb sheer mountain cliffs in freezing weather with only a rope holding them together and special hobnailed climbing boots to give them steadier footing.

I'm sweating just remembering how terrible was the drop below them. It took real courage.

Rudi earns the respect of his village and the men with him, but not in the way you think. The ending is surprising, but very moving and very fitting.
This is a great, great book.