France Books

These memoirs have been quoted in Toland's book on WWI and now in Farwell's book. It was good to go to the source because of the writing of the Carl A. Brannen, the editorial comments from the editors, and then the addition of the excellent view of the son in 1990. This should be a must read for every Marine and for anyone who wants to know about war.

When America declared war in 1917, Carl A. Brannen was an 18-year-old freshman at Texas A&M. He finished out the fall semester of his sophomore year and then enlisted in the Marine Corps in January 1918, reporting for boot camp in February. Immediately upon graduation, he was shipped overseas to France to join the American Expeditionary Force under Gen John Pershing's command. After more training in Europe, he moved to the "front" to join the 6th Marine Regiment under the Army's 2d Division as a replacement for marines killed in the first 48 hours of the battle of Belleau Wood. Brannen kept a very good diary. We discover that he is not a heroic figure-just a marine trying to stay alive. He knows that a foxhole or trench is a valuable piece of real estate in face of murderous machine gun fire. Brannen understands and appreciates the difference between his gas mask and those the French have (they are better), so he watches for a spare one. He knows what hunger is and how much a hot meal means, when he can get one. He also knows what thirst is and how uncertain resupply is in a combat situation. Brannen quickly learns the difference in the sound of the explosion of a gas, shrapnel, or high-explosive shell. He stayed in Belleau Wood until it was captured on the first of July, a great morale victory for all the Allied armies. Brannen wasn't relieved until 16 July 1918. Instead of receiving a period of rest and recovery, he and his fellow marines were trucked to the battle area of Soissons, where he participated in an advance led by tanks. The Germans countered the attack with near-point-blank artillery, killing Brannen's best friend. It took only 40 minutes for his regiment to be nearly annihilated. Brannen, however, is a survivor. He participated in battles in Saint-Mihiel, Mont Blanc, and the Meuse-Argonne. Following the armistice, as a member of the 2d Division, his unit became part of the Army of Occupation. Pershing kept the army sharp by means of a rigorous postwar training program. Brannen writes about how morale plummeted in this situation since most soldiers only wanted to return home. Just when Brannen began to feel down, he was selected to join the ranks of a regiment referred to as Pershing's Own. He had fought with the 4th Marine Brigade in every major battle and had survived-a claim few people could make. The 6th Regiment, composed of three thousand men, suffered 1,161 killed and over 4,656 wounded for total casualties of 5,817.

Over There is a very moving book. Brannen, who knows he was lucky to survive, is a quiet man in a heroic way. If it were not for his son and some dedicated scholars, the papers, photographs, and diary entries that tell his story would have been lost. This book, together with Robert Asprey's At Belleau Wood, provides a poignant reminder of just how terrible war really is.

Private Brannen's memoirs, written some twenty later, are fragmentary and somewhat impressionistic, but impart well the combat experience of the World War One Marine, from Belleau Wood, St. Mihiel, and Soissons, to the Meuse-Argonne.
His recollections, accompanied by period photographs, are expertly annotated to provide necessary historical context and perspective, and further expanded by Brannen's son, who visited the scenes of combat in the 1990's and added new photos of those famous battlefields. This is a valuable addition to the history of World War I, and will be of special interest to students of the Marine Corps.

(The "score" rating is a feature of the page. This reviewer does not "score" books.)

Carl Andrew Brannen died the year I turned 18. The same age he was when he began his journey through the Marine Corps, into France and back home to Trinity County, Texas. I have visited his battlefields several times and have used "Over There" as a field reference guide. In the summer of 1999 I stood in the Soissons battlefield with my 4 children as they lay in the same road in about the same place their great grandfather clutched the earth for a dozen hours or so waiting for the German counter attack or darkness or death which ever came first. He with a couple of dozen Marines were all that stood between the German line of defense and the rear echelon for most of that fateful day. I read his account out loud to them as we walked down the road and know that it brought insight and meaning to them as it would any American. Knowing that there are thousands of decendants of war veterans with stories untold, I highly recommend this book as a way to begin your own personal journey to discover the trail, Washed with Tears, as my Uncle Joeseph Patrick Brannen, C.A.Brannen's son, and one of the authors of this book, might say. C.A. Brannen's point of reference for his experiences was that of his uncle Eaph Dial, a Civil War veteran of Hood's Texas Brigade, who from 1862 to 1865 fought in most every major engagement his brigade was a part of. Like Eaph Dial, my grandfather was also a part of every action the 2nd Division participated in between June of 1918 and the end of the war. His war decorations include 5 battle stars all of which are featured in this book. C.A.Brannen's dash across no man's land at Soisson's and Blanc Mont Ridge was often described to me as child listening with great awe, as similar to the Confederate attacks at Gettysburg. There is a bit of every American in his story and ought to be read. It is a quick read, complete with historical research to confirm his accounts and is perfectly suitable for readers of every age.

Rupert Christiansen has written an historical account that is also a "great read"; hard to put down and very enlightening. I had just finished reading a novel that was set (partially) in Paris around the time of the Franco-Prussian war and wanted to find out more. Surprisingly, this is the only book I could find that dealt with this utterly fascinating time and place. The title of the book says it's "the story of the Paris Commune". This is incorrect; only a relatively small part of the book deals with the Commune, while the major part describes life in the Second Empire of Louis Napoleon and the Siege of Paris during the war. I couldn't help but draw parallels to current Western culture while reading about Paris in the 1860s: creation of incredible wealth and its ostentatious display, pioneering techniques of entrepreneurship, rapid developments in transportation and communication, rampant cynicism among the intellectuals, popular fascination by the news media with private lives and notorious murders, and a very public decline in sexual morality. The author covers the sociology, the history, and the politics in a very smooth combination of original sources and his own narrative. It never gets bogged down on detail, but still presents a very complete description. This is a book that could be enjoyed by anyone, even those who have little knowlege of the 19th century and little interest in history.

March 18th every year is the anniversary of the establishment of the Paris Commune in 1871. That event rightly takes its place in an honored position in the revolutionary pantheon and is commemorated, especially in Paris, as such. Why? As the founder of scientific socialism, Karl Marx, noted in his spirited defense of the Commune against the raging reaction of capitalist Europe and the faint-hearted in the international labor movement at the time this was the first, trembling expression of the `dictatorship of the proletariat'-the time of working class rule. That it was crushed quickly by that same capitalist Europe and repressed thoroughly does not take away from the grandeur of the experience. Historians have rightly taken it as a seminal event in late 19th century European history. The book under review takes up the narrative around the establishment of the Commune in an interesting way.

The study of history like other major scholarly disciplines goes through cycles and, frankly, fads concerning the important lessons of any period and about what and who to emphasize or not emphasize. This book belongs in the camp of the social micro-history school where setting up the milieu is decisive for interpreting the sequence of events. The author has done a creditable job of setting the milieu of the Second Empire in France under the dyspeptic Louis Bonaparte and his entourage, including his demanding and, at times, bizarre wife. Moreover he sets the scene by a rather vivid, and perhaps too vivid, detailing of Parisian manners, mores, cuisine, architecture and other cultural phenomena which point menacingly to the disastrous military overconfidence and woeful under preparedness that was about to occur in 1870 when confronted by the Prussians.

Less satisfactory is his analysis of the enigmatic but politically clever Louis Bonaparte and the social base on which his regime rested. Karl Marx did a much more thorough, if more polemical, analysis on that base of mainly rural farmers and their political dependents who stuck by Bonaparte to the end in his classic exposition of historical materialism, the 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte. Also the author's narrative of the establishment and crushing of the Paris Commune does not lend itself to drawing any lessons from the experience. While the author is not
overtly hostile to the Commune he is clearly no friend, and makes no bones about it. Seemingly the Communards got what they deserved, or at least what they should have expected. If you want to get an in-depth analysis of those lessons you must look elsewhere, especially if you are looking for the implications for future revolution strategy for the 20th century Marxist movement. With those shortcomings in mind if you want a good literary Inside Edition-like social travelogue of Paris in the third quarter of the 19th century this is as good a place as any to start.

Rupert Christiansen has written an historical account that is also a "great read"; hard to put down and very enlightening. I had just finished reading a novel that was set (partially) in Paris around the time of the Franco-Prussian war and wanted to find out more. Surprisingly, this is the only book I could find that dealt with this utterly fascinating time and place. The title of the book says it's "the story of the Paris Commune". This is incorrect; only a relatively small part of the book deals with the Commune, while the major part describes life in the Second Empire of Louis Napoleon and the Siege of Paris during the war. I couldn't help but draw parallels to current Western culture while reading about Paris in the 1860s: creation of incredible wealth and its ostentatious display, pioneering techniques of entrepreneurship, rapid developments in transportation and communication, rampant cynicism among the intellectuals, popular fascination by the news media with private lives and notorious murders, and a very public decline in sexual morality. The author covers the sociology, the history, and the politics in a very smooth combination of original sources and his own narrative. It never gets bogged down on detail, but still presents a very complete description. This is a book that could be enjoyed by anyone, even those who have little knowlege of the 19th century and little interest in history.

Rupert Christiansen really brings the Commune alive through a combination of research, archived interview, old news clips, and photos. The commune's ascendancy and collapse is related as a compelling chronology. His fine writing brings out the french pompousness that lead to the franco- prussian war; the siege of Paris; the state of denial that held to the last days among the upper class; the state of terror and famine of the lower class; and the ultimate collapse of the commune and eventual slaughter of the communards. As one who has lived in Paris, I highly recommend it even if you don't traditionally read history books.

My wife and I spent 13 days in Paris in May-June 2006. I found the information still current and extremely helpful. Oh, the great meals we had!! We dined at many of the places listed and were never disappointed. The descriptions of the various places were always spot on. We enjoyed the cheaper haunts as well as some of the pricier ones. I love to plan trips but I don't like to schedule every moment, especially when and where we might need to chow down. This book had great places all across Paris and was very accurate with info on when a place was open or not. We were able to be spontaneous without taking complete leaps of faith based on mere appearances. This book is a find!

This is THE book for lovers of Paris cafe culture, the Gaîté Parisienne of Toulouse and Degas and young Picasso, the smoke-filled existentialist redoubts of postwar angst and Sartre, the whole range of places, from tucked-away local digs where shirtsleeve workers take their lunch served by big-armed mamas to the ritzy-boulevard tourist traps, all the color, sounds, palate treats and eye treats you could possibly want, the stuff that brought you to Paris in the first place, are what Christine and Dennis Graf have confected for you, and not only that but they tell you how it's done, how the cafe "works," with the local body language and recognitions and intricate gestural vocabulary and what the places mean to les parisiens indigenes as well as the reverent foreigner drop-in. It's the book to have hidden in your pocket when you enter, the treasure-hunt clue that pointed you there but remains carefully concealed so that the habitués will think you just naturally gravitated to the place or else were astrally tossed there by astounding good luck. The book is worth five, ten times its purchase price.

Much more than a standard travel guide, this book is a work of art. It's beautifully written and sprinkled with entertaining vignettes and charming photographs. The authors have departed from the beaten path and searched Paris to find a select group of Bistros, the kind the average tourist hopes to find but rarely does. They are all unique, but they all have some things in common: appealing atmosphere, creative menus and outstanding value-- and they all make me anxious to return to Paris!

This book reads like a novel. Each section introduces the reader to the charms and peculiarities of the neighborhoods of Paris, followed by vivid descriptions of the history and atmosphere of the most interesting bistros and the best fare offered by each. This is not your typical tourist guide. I loved the fact that it is a slim book, packed with information, which can easily fit in a purse or pocket. The authors have focusssed on the bistros where Parisians find the best food for the best value. I loved the photographs, which capture the charm of Paris and made me yearn for a return visit.

As one who had never been to Paris I found/find Ms. Anderson's book extremely helpful, as well as entertaining. The discovery of Paris is a very personal journey, and I give Ms. Anderson credit for NOT including photographs, because pictures limit ones' own experiences of Paris. If photographs had been included in this book, they would have limited my own imagination of African-American Paris, and my personal journey of discovery. Ms. Anderson is an accomplished writer and artist, who is very readable. Her artwork is intriguing. I highly recommend this book, as somebody who doesn't travel very much, however I also feel the seasoned traveler will also benefit from her research. It also makes a lovely gift.

Congratulations on work well done. While there are thousands of writings on Paris, add this to your list of Paris reading. While this work is uniquely geared towards a personal experience of Paris through the eyes of African Americans, it is a must have for anybody planning a cultural tour of the city of Paris. I congratulate Ms. Anderson for her enlightening and beautiful book!

Paris Reflections, Walks Through African-American Paris is a comprehensive walking guide through the streets of Paris. Written by Christiann Anderson and Monique Wells, two African-American women who have adopted the city as their home, the book is a well documented history of African-Americans and others of African descent who have lived, worked and played in the famed City of Lights.

As one reads through the book, the authors' love and appreciation of the city is evident. In Paris Reflections, readers follow six fascinating walking tours of the city and are treated to a treasure cove of information, the obscure as well as the familiar, from important dates in Africa-American history in Paris to profiles of colorful personalities who have lived and worked in the city. Well written and easy to read, Paris Reflections, Walks Through African-American Paris is a valuable resource for both travelers and non-travelers as well.

One recent Saturday afternoon, I set out, copy of Paris Reflections in hand, to do an actual walking tour of the Latin Quarter in Paris. My aim was to familiarize myself with some of the Black American history meticulously detailed in the book. I wasn't entirely convinced that this journey would be that enjoyable.

What followed was an afternoon of sheer delight, as I rediscovered some of the incredible beauty of this area, with the added bonus of a perspective of celebrated Black Americans from a different era. While their very haunts may have changed or even be totally nonexistent, the monuments and neighborhoods themselves are still intact, to be seen just as these personalities saw them.

I applaud the authors for what must surely have been a labor of love. One pet-peeve, however, is the lack of photos of the basic points of interest encountered during the walks. But, otherwise, the discovery process as presented in this book in this most beautiful of cities is worth the price of admission alone. I enthusiastically recommend this offering!

I am Ms.Rice's student from Bogazici University in Turkey. I have read a couple of chapters of this book yet, however only that much was enough to take my attention and keep me going on. The things that normally we know nothing and do not really wonder much about is presented in a way that would attract intention from both proffesional and amateur readers. Its language is a little bit difficult but the content is very interesting. It is very obvious that a real amount of effort has been put in creation of this book.

This book begins with the first photograph ever taken, in 1838, in Paris, which co-incides with the beginning of Paris' physical modernisation (under Hausmann in the 1850's). Two parallel tracks: of the development of photography and how that influenced our *viewing* of the physical world; of the development of urban-planned and -modernised Paris and how that influenced our viewing of a city. Both developments began with a difinitive demarcation from the past. I can't remember if I've ever read a *scholarly* anlysis that has been so *lively* and immediate.

Shelley Rice's superb PARISIAN VIEWS is a stimulating collection of essays on aspects of 19th century photography in Paris, especially during that period of time in which Baron Haussmann was in charge of gutting medieval Paris and rebuilding it as the city we know today. Like a flaneur, the essays range almost randomly over a host of subjects, overlapping to a great deal in the end, but not having a particular or central thesis that permeates them all.

The photographs themselves are both beautiful and profoundly disconcerting. I found myself looking at particular photographs for extended periods of time. One in particular that troubled me was an 1838 photograph by Daguerre of the Boulevard du Temple, one of the first ever made. Because of the long exposure time, despite the boulevard's being an extremely busy street, only a single individual is visible, and he only because he was standing at a boot black to have his boots polished. Otherwise, we see an eerily deserted street, devoid of people. One of the earliest photographic images of a human being in history, if not the earliest, and the man himself was utterly unaware of his historic moment. Many of the photographs in the book inspire reflections along these lines.

Rice's book should be of interest to individuals interested in a variety of subjects: history, the development of photography, art, city planning, and cultural criticism, to name but a few. The focus of the book is not narrowly restricted to any one subject, as the wide-ranging bibliography will demonstrate.

A book that makes a perfect companion volume is the one that Rice credits with inspiring the initial work on this book: Marshall Berman's ALL THAT IS SOLID MELTS INTO AIR, which traces developments in modernism in the past two centuries. All his chapters are exciting and riveting, but one of the finest is the one on Haussmannization, both in Paris and elsewhere, in places like New York with the work of Robert Moses. In addition to Berman, the ghosts of Baudelaire and Walter Benjamin hover over many of the pages in the book.

Rice produced a fascinating study of Parisian photography in the age of Haussmannization, when artists predicted and hundreds of thousands literally watched their familiar Old Paris uprooted and its sites of historic memory obliterated one by one. The book makes a nice contrast to T.J. Clark's The Painting of Modern Life in its sensitivity to the worldview of the historical agents themselves. Whereas Clark sees in modernist paintings a failure of Parisians to recognize the ongoing class struggle and the embourgeoisement of the proletariat, Rice pays more attention to the actual discourse of mobility, loss of unity, fragmentation of meaning, and a sense of loss of self in this constantly changing "soulless" city. Its inhabitants are alienated in time as much as in space, and the one most sensitive to this change (Baudelaire) acknowledges the degree to which urban space has come to inject social meaning in his most private and intimate affairs: love. The book equally deserves high praise for its beautiful and moving prose. Plus, it has plenty of fun pictures! Rice, without a doubt, lives and breathes the world of the people she depicts. It is the most enjoyable and powerful book I read in this entire school year, and for a grad student in history at Berkeley, that says a lot!

I found this book at our local library here in Albuquerque, and just had to own a copy. For anyone with an interest in Chopin, this book is an incredible gold mine of facts and details you won't find anywhere else, but Chopin is really only a small part of the wide-ranging subjects covered. Everyone who was anyone in Paris in the 1830s and '40s figures in this book, and people and events are also connected to the wider world of Europe and even America. The major composers, writers, artists, social reformers, politicians, and even doctors are covered. Nearly everything you might want to know about daily life in the first half of the 19th century is also described (will definitely cure you of any longing for the "good old days"....).

William Atwood is a dermatologist, and his descriptions of the medical thinking and practice of the time were especially interesting to me. As a holistic practitioner, I appreciated his discussion of the popularity of homeopathy in the 19th century. Chopin, of course, used homeopathy instead of the brutal methods of the allopathic doctors of his time, and seems to have been far better off than he would have been otherwise.

This book was a great help to me in clarifying Chopin's place in his time and adopted country. I expect to refer to it often.

What pleasure it is to be able to sit down and write a review of a truly enjoyable book such as this one. As I sit here typing I am listening to some music from one of the greatest composers of the 19th Century, Frederic Chopin. Fitting no less, as this book provides the reader with a guide through the City of Paris as seen and experienced by Chopin during his time there.

The author, William Atwood, has written two previous books on Chopin and in this third book he shows that he has a deep understanding for Chopin and his time. Covering the period from 1831 to 1849 Atwood covers all manner of subjects in his discussion of Paris, that beautiful city that seemed to produce some of the greatest artists in Europe. The author provides you with an insight into the social and artistic scene as well as some of the more interesting people, places and activities of Paris.

The book covers not only music and musicians but poets, writers, painters, the opera and theatre, medicine, bohemians, people of the street and how they all lived and survived during this turbulent period. The story just flows along smoothly and some of the stories are just amazing.

For instance when Paris decided to solve the sewage problem that tended to blot the city streets they changed the roadways contours from concave to convex allowing the swill and sewage to run off the roads into the new drainage system. The only problem with this was that not all the drains were properly covered and children often fell through the drains into the underground sewer system!

Another interesting little story in the chapter on medicine informs the reader that during the craze for bleeding as a form of combating illness that swept Paris during the early 1830's it was estimated that by 1833 Paris was importing 41.5 million leeches a year!

One of my favourite stories was the tragic tale of Alphonsine Plessis, the lady of the camellias, which can be found in the chapter regarding bohemians and demimondes (I don't want to spoil the story for anyone so you will have to buy the book and read it for yourself). According the Atwood the people of Paris still leave offerings of flowers on her tomb at the cemetery at Montmarte.

For anyone who loves good history, the arts or just a well-written book I am sure they will enjoy this story. In the pages you will find some of the greatest names in the world of the arts, Frederic Chopin, Eugene Delacroix, George Sand, Honore de Balzac, Hector Berlioz, Alexandre Dumas, Victor Hugo, Franz Liszt, and many many more. The book also provides numerous black and white illustrations showing Paris, its people and its buildings, during this time. This is a great story, an enjoyable read and an interesting piece of history.

I found this book at our local library here in Albuquerque, and just had to own a copy. For anyone with an interest in Chopin, this book is an incredible gold mine of facts and details you won't find anywhere else, but Chopin is really only a small part of the wide-ranging subjects covered. Everyone who was anyone in Paris in the 1830s and '40s figures in this book, and people and events are also connected to the wider world of Europe and even America. The major composers, writers, artists, social reformers, politicians, and even doctors are covered. Nearly everything you might want to know about daily life in the first half of the 19th century is also described (will definitely cure you of any longing for the "good old days"....).

William Atwood is a dermatologist, and his descriptions of the medical thinking and practice of the time were especially interesting to me. As a holistic practitioner, I appreciated his discussion of the popularity of homeopathy in the 19th century. Chopin, of course, used homeopathy instead of the brutal methods of the allopathic doctors of his time, and seems to have been far better off than he would have been otherwise.

This book was a great help to me in clarifying Chopin's place in his time and adopted country. I expect to refer to it often.

I found this book at our local library here in Albuquerque, and just had to own a copy. For anyone with an interest in Chopin, this book is an incredible gold mine of facts and details you won't find anywhere else, but Chopin is really only a small part of the wide-ranging subjects covered. Everyone who was anyone in Paris in the 1830s and '40s figures in this book, and people and events are also connected to the wider world of Europe and even America. The major composers, writers, artists, social reformers, politicians, and even doctors are covered. Nearly everything you might want to know about daily life in the first half of the 19th century is also described (will definitely cure you of any longing for the "good old days"....).

William Atwood is a dermatologist, and his descriptions of the medical thinking and practice of the time were especially interesting to me. As a holistic practitioner, I appreciated his discussion of the popularity of homeopathy in the 19th century. Chopin, of course, used homeopathy instead of the brutal methods of the allopathic doctors of his time, and seems to have been far better off than he would have been otherwise.

This book was a great help to me in clarifying Chopin's place in his time and adopted country. I expect to refer to it often.

It is a beautiful collection of images of the life in Paris. Seeing the pictures make you yearn to go there to take your own pictures.

After being in Paris for an entire summer, I've returned to the US with great heartache. Paris had a profound effect on me, so when I arrived in the states, I feverishly tried to gather all I could to remind me of Paris. On a whim I bought "Parisians." From the moment I opened it up, I was suddenly back in my beloved city. The photographs capture Paris in the way that takes me back everytime. Turnley's skill at capturing the essence of Parisians is striking, uncanny and charming. If you've been, you miss it, or want to know what Paris is "really" like, just open the cover of "Parisians." On the days I want nothing more than to transport back to Paris, all I have to do is open this book and I'm there.

Peter Turnley has captured the spirit of Paris and the souls of Parisians and presented it in one beautifully produced volume for the world to see at an affordable price. The images are stunning and the order of the images contributes to the quality of the book. I expect to return to these images often for years to come.

For those of you who have been to Paris, Peter Turnley's work will strike a deep sense of longing to return. His ability to capture some many facets of life throughout his book is delightful. I really enjoyed the mix of people, places, and situations he photographed such as a French woman in a barista or fans at a soccer game. His use of black and white photography added a sense of timelessness to the work. In summary, I think the book is an amazing piece of work that highlights the diversity and beauty of Paris.

Excellent read !! There are many books about Therese. This one stands out because it presents her profound spirituality in light of the progression of her extensive illness of Tuberculosis. There is much to learn about both the effects of illness on the spiritual life and the almost ideal response to illness of one seriously seeking God.

Most books gloss over the last months of St. Therese, possibly because up until the last 40 years TB was so common that nobody really needed to hear an in depth discussion of it. After reading this book you will be deeply moved. St. Therese went through a long dark night of the soul and body and although physically crushed she spiritually soared above it. I would definitely say that this book belongs in your collection of works on the Little Flower.

This book provides a clinical report of the last agonizing months of Therese of Lisieux's life. The research is meticulous and the medical details are easy to understand. It is a complement to the Saint's writings because the reader can trace in this book her physical trials which help to understand her spiritual trials as well which were plaguing her at the time. My only criticism is that the second part of the book is a bit redundant to the first.

Rich in detail of Therese's last months; a powerful framework for Last Conversations.

My sister and I recently returned from 2 weeks in France. While in Paris we visited several of the recommended patisseries and totally enjoyed the wonderful offerings. We actually planned some of our sightseeing and shopping around the location of a few of these. Good idea for Paris!

This is a lovely little fairy tale of a book, and whether you are a foodie, an armchair traveler, a world traveler, or someone who needs romance, this book will supply it in spades. When you see the book, you will notice that it is small, designed to look like a box from a patisserie or chocolatier, and the colors are muted and soft, like a 21rst century impressionist painting seen through a layer of clouds. I loved the writing. It is intimate, honest, amusing, and charming, almost like having your best friend talking to you, and filling your head with incredible pictures. You will almost be able to smell, taste, and hear the sounds of the places you are reading about. I will probably never go to Paris, but I fell in love with France in high school when I studied the language, so I love reading about all things French. If you are lucky enough to go to Paris, a quick perusal of this book will tell you the best places to eat, see, and experience. I do not recommend a quick perusal, however, because this book at it's best, is like a fairy tale in food. It is charming, concise, anecdotal, and romantic, because hey! It is Paris. When your head is filled to bursting with wonderful imagery from the writing, take a moment or ten or twenty to enjoy the beautiful photographs. The really lovely thing about this book is that the writing and the photos go together so well. One does not detract from the other, but it enhances and completes the other. I must say again how much I loved the writing. I really enjoyed the behind the scenes aspect of some of the shops, and especially "A Day In The Life of a Patissier". I can not recommend this book highly enough. It is absolutely wonderful, and I feel as though I have just had a blissful experience and not gained an ounce! The word evocative comes to mind; I can almost see myself sitting at one of those darling little tables, looking chic, tragically beautiful, and sharing sweets with a devastating French actor. That may not be your dream, but it is mine, and I won't say what happens after he pays the bill, and looks soulfully into my eyes, and warns me not to touch the last croissant.

A fun guide I finally got to see at the British bookstore, W.H.Smith on rue de Rivoli. The luscious pictures and detailed descriptions make you want to run all over Paris and not miss a single patisserie. Sadly a few places have since closed like Carette. Why any pastry shop should ever close in Paris is beyond me!

This cocoa-dusted treasure hits that mythical sweet spot between practical, trusted travel guide and gorgeous, dreamy (if petite) coffee table book. Full of the kind of beautiful photos and evocative lyrical prose that you'll never find in any guide and jam-packed with all of the actionable, expert advice that's missing from all those exquisitely photographed gift books, this one has it all. Organized by arrondissements, you're meant to flip to the neighborhood you're visiting to find the author's recos for the best macarons, tartes or baguettes nearby. If I were visiting France soon, that's just what I'd be doing. Cramming bookmarks between the pages, grabbing a map and taking off before the sun came up. But for now, curled up on my couch in New Jersey, I'm literally reading this like a romantic novel. Cover to cover. Dreaming of Paris...

Set approximately 1300 years ago, this historical novel is about Charles, born of an illegitimate relationship. His father, Pepin de Gros, is Mayor of the Castle in Cologne (the real authority), and Plectruda, his wife, is past childbearing age. Charles is born to Alpaida, one of the servant girls. Plectruda is irate, and even though Charles' claim to the throne is tiny, she makes sure that he never gets anywhere near it. Growing up, Charles is teased and tormented about his parentage by the other children. Always called Pepin's Bastard instead of Charles, it gets to the point where he might as well make that his legal name.

In his early teens, he is sent to a faraway castle, run by a man named Dodo, to learn how to be a soldier. He spends his winters at the monastery at Metz to learn reading, writing and arithmetic, a rarity. He marries, and starts a family, knowing that if Plectruda gets her hands on any of them, their life span will be very short. Charles rises through the ranks at the castle, becoming Captain of the Guard. Meantime, the throne in Cologne keeps changing hands, usually through assassination. One night, Charles receives the wife and teenage daughter of Grimwald, the latest occupant of the throne and one of Plectruda's sons. They tell a harrowing tale of fleeing at night, with just the clothes on their backs. Charles and the daughter have a child and get married, almost wrecking his marriage to Rotruda, his wife, but there is a reason for it.

Around the year 700, the Franks in northern Europe were a bunch of disorganized tribes, constantly attacking each other. Charles unites them under his banner, and takes the name Charles Martel (Charles the Hammer). The book ends with the first battle with a heretofore unknown group, the Muslims, coming from the southwest.

This is a gem of a book. As much as possible, it is based on historical fact. The author can trace her ancestry back to this time period, to a man named Pepin the Vain (read part 1 of this trilogy). It's interesting, very well done and recommended.

Diana Johnson does a great job of blending history and fiction in this book. She has brought Pepin de Vain's family tree to life and has woven the events that surrounded these lives into a story line with lots of intrigue and excitement. Anxious for the next book!!

Pepin's Bastard: The Story Of Charles Martel is Diana M. Johnson continues her series of historical novels arising from the era of that great medieval king, Charlemagne. But Charlemagne's empire still lies some distance into the future when Charles (the bastard son of Pepin de Gros) is born out of wedlock. Pepin's wife Plectruda is jealous of Charles and will stop at nothing to secure his death so that the power of kingship will be secured for her own legitimate sons. Pepin's Bastard is the thrilling story of how Charles survives, only to face the Muslims who are pouring over the Pyrenees Mountains and waging jihad (holy war) against the Christians -- seeking to exterminate or covert them and thereby dominating Europe as they had mastered the Middle East.

Having just finished Destiny's Godchild, I was eager to read Diana Johnson's sequel. Her knowledge of history and love of her subject is remarkable. This book is a fictional story that brings to life many characters from history who helped to form our destiny long before Charlemagne's reign. One of the most heartwarming characters is Charles Martel (Charles the Hammer). Ms. Johnson takes you from his unwanted birth to the heart stopping war where his army of foot soldiers defeated the well-trained Muslim horsemen under extremely unequal circumstances, thus saving Europe for Christianity.  You will marvel at the fictional character Egar's wisdom and insightfulness as he mentors Charles' wife throughout her life. Charles' strong character and unyielding integrity will give you a real-life hero taken from the pages of history. Definitely a must read!!! Val Middler Middlebrook, author of "Val's Victory: Defeat was NEVER an Option."