Europe Books

This book is packed with info. I lived in Italy for four years and was looking for a good reference for a trip I plan to take as soon as I have both the time and the money...yadda yadda. Anyway, parusing this book brings back the memories and offers little "insider" vignettes not only about the different places you can explore, but also about the culture, food, tipping and even explains how to get your car towed... (Hey, you never know...) It's obvious that this writer has spent some time in Italy and has written a comprehensive book. This is not your generic guide book that covers just the basics. This one goes in depth. Note that the author does not have books on any other country... he seems to be a specialist.

A friend sent us the second edition,before travelling to Rome and Florence in 1999. My husband and I thought the book was far superior to the other travel books we used.It had a real personal touch, plus the suggestions were wonderful. The book was amazing. Every restaurant that Doug recommended was terrific. We are returning to Italy next year, and I just purchased the 5th Edition . Plus, I have emailed the author and he has responded to my questions in a timely manner.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is planning a trip to Italy.

We have been thinking about traveling to Europe. We read the Tuscany & Umbria Guide on Italy and our choice of country was decided.
Since Mr. Morris has lived in Italy, he has the knowledge of the country.
Thanks Mr. Morris for a fantastic book.

Donna & Mike Lareau, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Concise easy to read guide. Organized by the different regions of Italy. Included are itineraries, maps and most importantly the "sidebars" which are shaded areas of a page with hints and facts that other guide books don't offer. Also a included are blank pages for travel notes. Agreat value for the money.

As an experienced traveler who has lived all over the world, I am always grateful when I find a travel guide that helps me integrate myself into another country easily. Morris' volume helped me find the best sights, stay in the best hotels, and eat at the restaurants and cafes that the local frequent. Use this book and you will have a great time in Italy.

I first read this book when I was about 10. It is an incredibly well written and researched book. I am forturnate to own an original copy and also have managed to acquire the prequel Judith which completes the story nicely.

Truly one of the best and most memorable books from my childhood, I can still pick this one up (at 27 years of age) and be transported to Wessex in the reign of Alfred the Great. Based loosely on historical occurences and people, this wonderful book has everything you could ask for. . . intrigue, terror, romance, travel and adventure abound. The prequel, Judith of France by Leighton, is another masterpiece of young adult literature which features the parents and grandparents of the starts of this story. I truly cannot recommend this book enough.

A wonderful historical novel about a daughter of Alfred the Great, brought up to marry dynastically, but brave enough to demand love as well. Also recommended is Judith of France, which is about some of the same characters.

This is the story of a 14 year old princess in 9th century England whose father the king sends her on a long journey to Rome while he delays his decision on whether or not she can marry a barbarian Viking who loves her. The atmosphere of this book is magical. Margaret Leighton describes the surroundings so realistically that I could smell the air, feel the sunshine just as Elstrid did. "At the top of the first hill they stopped to rest their horses. Elstride drew a deep breath of the flower-scented air. Thrushes sang from every hazel bush and high in the flawless blue of the sky a skylark was scattering its music. The road wound down the hill before them...." I wanted to be Elstrid and take this journey SO BADLY!! I read this book as a 10 or 12 year old girl and it absolutely pulled me and entranced me! I checked it out at the library several times over the years. Years later, as an adult, I tried to find it again, but couldn't find it at a library or bookstore anywhere. With the advent of the internet, I finally found it again, but for [more money]! My husband found a beautiful copy for me for my 35th birthday. It was maybe the best birthday present I've ever had.

I first read this book four years ago and have taken it out of the library many times since. It is the wonderful coming-of-age tale of a real historical figure, Elstrid, daughter of Alfred the Great of England. Not only does the journey of the title refer to the pilgrimage that Elstrid takes to Rome, but her journey from child to young woman. It only makes it more interesting to know that the main characters, Alfred, Elstrid and her sisters and brothers, Baudouin and Judith were all real people who lived long ago. I also wish this book would be published again. I would love to have a copy of my own.

This is an OK read for those wanting to know who wanted Hitler killed. Obviously, Stalin, the British government, German generals, and other assorted opposition personnel wanted to kill the dictator. Some of them were simply stalkers as with the case of the Swiss theology student. Others were more professional as with the carpenter who made the woodwork on a pillar in the beer hall. All would have done a service to humanity if they knocked off Hitler. I learned a lot about the efforts of German generals plans and the other plots that are only briefly talked about in the history of World War Two. Hitler was a very secure target with minimal exposure to the public. A person who plotted the assassination would obviously have to know Hitler in order to kill him. Most of those who knew him, feared him, and did not have the guts to bring themselves to sacrifice themselves in order to kill him.

This is a nice read about efforts to kill Hitler. All the various plots and plans are neatly summarized for the reader to learn how people planned to kill Hitler.

If you're an armchair historian on World War II,then this is an excellent account of Hitler's obscure rise to ultimate power.This is a fascinating look at all the secret saboteurs against the furiose fuhrer.If you're intrigued by the history surrounding the Hitler topic,you'll be spellbound by this book.I never realized the various plots ,inside and outside his inner court,that were being hatched around him.Some will argue it was fated that he would survive.Many would agree it was just bad luck.I still find myself asking if Hitler wanted to destroy Germany on purpose,in revenge for being an 'oddball outcast'.Hitler was seen as a backwood peasant,and not of Viennese artistic quality.Many 'Hitler Histories' claim he was a 'house-painter'.This was not true.He was a failed baukunstler student,that later painted postcards for tourists.Himmler is often listed as just a 'chicken-farmer's geek',when he in fact had technical training at an argicultural institute,as well.The sagacious Himmler was aware of Hitler's ill-gotten birth,ab ovo,and probably felt he was better off as the 'propaganda-direktor'.Rather than the Nazi party's leader.Himmler saw the potential marriage between Hitler and his niece ,Gisella Rubel,as another generation of 'genetic-trouble' for the Fuhrer and an image-problem for the party.It was not discussed in this book,yet it can be speculated ,that Himmler's SS had Rubel killed and Himmler then instructed a 'suicide-scene' staged.Hitler believed fully that 'in-breeding' was preserving of the Aryan race,when in fact it was creating genetic dead-ends for extinction of the human race.At any rate,the various Allied countries valiently tried to eradicate the polemic dictator from his post.This engaging book gives the agentry accounts of the agent-provocateurs involved.From his egregious wanderings into the beer-hall rants then onto his fusty bunker of despair.This is a gripping book about the assassins of change,who failed to curtail the actions of a desperate madman,whose demagoguery bedeviled an entire nation into ruin for a generation.

Although I was aware of some attempts on Hitler's life, I did not know that there were so many and from so many different sources - both within Hitler's entourage as well as far away from it. The author has provided well-researched and reasoned renderings of a subset of these attempts - the most fascinating and surprising ones. But in addition to discussing these various attempts in detail, the author has also presented much valuable information on the background history and evolving politics of Germany from the end of World War I to the end of World War II. The brutality of the Nazi regime is also amply discussed. As expected, particular attention has been paid to the instigation, structure and evolution of Hitler's security organization. The book's writing style is clear, friendly, authoritative and very engaging. It should be most relished by history buffs that have a penchant for the Second World War.

Well written, readable account of the major plots and attempts to kill Hitler over the course of his political ascension to his final self demise. Impressive telling from young Georg Elser's early attempt to kill Hitler in 1939 with an ingenious self made bomb that exploded on time but after Hitler prematurely left the podium to his military enemies the British who initially found the task undesirable. The telling of these grand and individual plots parallels the rise and fall of the Third Reich. The detail is quite refreshing discussing how initially vulnerable to assassination Hitler was partially due to his grandiose perception that he was supernaturally protected from death. Aside from external and internal plots within the military, the author explains in impressive detail how the various heroic undergrounds were successful in killing numerous Nazis while suffering great and shocking reprisals for their success particularly in Poland and Czechoslovakia. An ultimate example is the Czechs pulling off a major assassination with the killing of Heydrich. Impressive is the author's documentation of the various anti-Hitler networks involving such prominent military men such as Wilhelm Canaris and Hans Oster who both suffer once exposed. The highlight of the book of course is the great attempt that almost kills Hitler, the bomb planted by war hero Stauffenberg in the Rastenburg map room. The author also tells why the assassination failed that is an interesting and new revelation. Another interested party is Hitler's favorite architect and armories coordinator, Albert Speer, who the author recognizes as potentially self serving at Nuremberg but the author also recognized Speers' desire not to have Germany destroyed as Hitler wished at the end. The book also includes an excellent collection of photographs of the collaborators and other fascinating photos such as Goring inspecting the destroyed map room to a startling picture of the extraordinary intense gaze of British Colonel Noel Mason-McFarland during a pre-war German military review. Mason-McFarland emphatically stated before the war that a sniper could easily dispatch Hitler and save Europe.

Roger Moorehouse's "Killing Hitler" is a tragic chronicle of the alarmingly few individuals and groups in Nazi Germany who saw early on (or too late) that their "leader" was a mass murdering psychopath and acted accordingly--to no avail.

Though their bravery is commendable, one cannot help feel terrible anger and frustration as one gets into the thick of Moorhouse's feverish narrative. At long last, one has to ask, why didn't someone in the Wehrmacht simply get on good terms with Hitler, stand next to him, and ignite a live grenade? Suffice to say that any evaluation of posterity is just that, and only a slight percentage of those still living have had the experience of living in a ferocious totalitarian state like the Germany of 1933-45.

Perhaps the most impressive of the would-be assassins is Maurice Bavaud, a young idealist with deep roots in Christendom who, in 1939, waited for Hitler to show up at his annual "Beer Hall Putsch" celebration (where the equally courageous Georg Elser would plant a bomb which missed only because of a chance early departure by the dictator) took a pistol, and was foiled because of a group of German civilians. This was not the first time Bauvaud would make such a naked, furious attempt on the Fuhrer's life. Captured and guillotined in 1941, Bavaud stated baldly that whether Germans would accept it or not, he had been acting not only in their interest but the interest of all humanity. Only Col. Claus Von Stauffenberg's already well publicized attempt rivals that kind of courage.

The Warsaw Uprising of 1944 is given an impressive, if limited, recounting here: the PHM (Polish Home Army) managed to kill 9,000 SS soldiers and, through the utlitization of suicide bombers and guerilla attacks, eliminate a few important members of the Third Reich. The RAF's bungled, halfhearted attempts to bomb Hitler's HQ in East Prussia really didn't need mention here.

How desperate some former Wehrmacht soldiers were for Hitler's death is given heart pounding illustration here, in history's first suicide bomber, Rudolf-Chriastoph Von Gersdorff. Having served as an unofficial emissary for Henning Von Tresckow, a lifelong opponent of the Nazi regime and a key figure in the July 20th attempt, agreed to an act of utter self-sacrifice in order to get rid of Hitler: "At this point it became clear to me that an attack was only possible if I were to carry the explosives about my person, and blow myself up as close to Hitler as was possible."
Lining his uniform with "clam mines" obtained from a fellow officer (Col. Brandt, who knew nothing of the attempt, and who ironically would be the man to move the briefcase bomb away from Hitler on July 20th), he armed the mines with a trigger that would give him exactly ten minutes in which to approach his target and "kiss the sky". Hitler was, at the time, speaking in a German museum--originally Gersdorff was to approach him while the speech was being made and stand beside him.

Hitler cut the speech, was intended to be thirty minutes, to two minutes, and despite Gersdorff having already activated the device--with 5 minutes left--his attempts to stay near Hitler were in vain. Hitler may have noticed that Gersdorff was unusually "eager to talk" and the demonic instinct of self preservation kicked in: in any case, he said goodbye very quickly. Gersdorff then ran to the restroom and defused the bomb with trembling hands.

Moorhouse gets downright unethical--probably desperate for material, but still--including Albert Speer in this book. Speer was Hitler's devoted architect from the beginning of the war to the end and was much a brainwashed Nazi as Himmler, Goerring or Goebbels; he was just charismatic and knew how to BS the judges at Nuremburg. He lied about his knowledge of the atrocities and the Allies, not having evidence ofhis full knowledge which would emerge years later, bought it. Aside from a few scholars who have an unhealthy fascination with him, the general consensus is that he should have been dangling at the end of a rope with all the rest. The only reason he had even a passing thought about assassinating a man he otherwise had nearly homoerotic feelings for was the destruction of Germany. And that's all it was, a passing thought. It should probably be removed from the book.

Continuing tale of the Cambridge-educated English Officer living the hell of warfare on the Western Front: replete with adoring batman, blustering colonel Blimps, out of control colonials (Australians and Canadians), journeys to England on home leave to meet misinformed civilians. Sasson has a style that waxes between light and lyrical, cynical and dark and starkly realistic. It is reminiscent of Graves but less dark than Blunden.

This is a tale of the human mind (an upper crust mind) that makes the journey from old world to that of the lost generation -- but Sassoon never loses himself. It shows that the mind-set was already there capable of dissecting and throwing away the old world view tradition. With capable honesty Sassoon relates the contradictions in life, army and mind set of the pre-war generation. He still takes advantage of the liesure of the educated class; his batman pours his tea, he still sees the colonials as slightly quaint and backwards (especially the Australians), still finds refuge among his educated Cambridge intellectuals -- this is no tale of class struggle.

This book can read as part of his trilogy lifestyle or on its own. It has many haunting vignettes and is perhaps one of the top 5 WWI memoirs. Highly recommended.

Siegfreid Sassoon's wonderful war memoir is thinly disguised as the story of George Sherston. Based solely on Sassoon's life in the trenches of WWI, it recounts the horror and scale of carnage that occurred. More importantly it shows the emotionally scars that the survivors carried with them as a result of exposure.

Sherston (Sassoon) was a rather spoiled and pampered young upper class Englishman. The war changed all that. Confronted with death, destruction and idiotic leadership from the High Command you sense the inner turmoil of Sherston.

Relieved when he is not involved with the fighting he is driven by guilt over the loss of the soldiers in his battalion. Consequently when his platoon is on the line he takes great risks in reconaissance of the German positions.

The effects of non-stop total war, stupid leadership and the complete contrast between England and the trenches (only a few hundred miles apart) is staggering to Sassoon. Sassoon becomes anti-war and considers becoming an objector, but his obvious connection to his comrades and loyalty to them wins out in the end. He hates the war but won't abandon his comrades in the field.

This is a great war memoir written by a poet who survived and was changed for life by his experiences in it.

Terrific book that sounded a bit autobiographical. Sassoon, of course, was a war hero on the battle of the Somme, decorated twice for bravery.

The book reads lyrically and is convey's nicely the daily life of soldiers moving back and forth from the front fighting trenches to the rear area of the battle field. He also does a great job portraying the strangeness and inner conflict of being back in British society (while recovering from illness) with people who know nothing of the war or its cost to the participants.

A Brit's version of "All Quiet ..."

While perhaps best known for his poetry written during WWI, Siegfried Sassoon was a very talented wordsmith in general, a trait that is demonstrated in his second semi-fictionalized autobiography, "Memoirs of an Infantry Officer". Sassoon chose to fictionalize his accounts of his life, an odd technique that allows him to distance himself from these experiences as he intimately describes the raw emotion and response behind them. In his three memoirs he is George Sherston, a thinly veiled version of himself, who thinnly veils the real-life characters he encountered during these times.

Readers are automatically flung into Sassoon's war experience, from the disjointed and fantastical training, to the brutal reality of life in the trenches. Sassoon describes these experiences in vivid detail, the sheer misery of trench warfare, the almost callous attitude toward the dead on both sides, and the surreal life led by those back home. Sassoon, nicknamed "Mad Jack" for his stubborness and seemingly sheer lunacy at times, was awfully lucky during his battle campaigns. He was wounded a few times, always sent back home to England to recuperate, and almost happy to return to the war.

However, after one session as an invalid, Sassoon begins to recognize that the war may not be all it's cracked up to be, that those in power are not telling the truth about their war aims, and that he may just be a lowly pawn in a game he doesn't want to play. Towards the end of his narrative, Sassoon tells of his decision to speak out against the war, even if it meant being court martialed. This act, filtered with courage and fear, is achingly portrayed as an act both necessary and questionable: as Sassoon places himself in danger, he questions his true beliefs in the matter. This account ends just as Sassoon enters the hospital in Scotland, avoiding court martial with a diagnosis of shell shock, 'lucky' as usual.

"Memoirs of an Infantry Officer" is a vividly descriptive account of life in the trenches during WWI. Sassoon is a gifted storyteller, who can make even the direst settings come to life. He offers a unique insight into the soldier poets who first questioned whether or not war was such a noble and glorious pursuit and if the sacrifice of lives was worth the price in the end. While a little slow at times, the last quarter of the narrative which details Sassoon's questioning of the war, is a brilliantly written firsthand look at how a too little celebrated writer finally found his voice.

Siegfried Sassons' "Memoirs of an Infantry Officer" is a first-hand account of life at the front line during World War 1. This is not a just a historical document or diary however. Sassoon writes via an alter-ego called George. In real life, Sassoon was an infantry officer who fought at the front, but eventually grew suspicious of the reasons for the continuation of World War 1, and as such became a dissenter. This book may be fiction, but it is based on fact and it gives an impressive account of what life must have been like in those trenches, nearly a hundred years ago. Sassoon's incredible ability with words paints a much more vivid picture than any war movie will ever provide.

George was a middle-class officer who had the luxury of a university education and was an avid reader of classic English literature. He juxtaposes the themes and ideas in this romantic poetry with the realities of life at the front to great effect. Although a tad repetitive in it's ideas (perhaps to get the point across clearly), this book is rewarding and still relevant this whole century later. As one character in the book says, "In war-time the word patriotism means suppression of truth" .

If you are looking for a quasi--non fiction biography that elicits the eccentric, theatrical and heartfelt this is it. It's full of encounters with known "characters" and divine locations...i.e. Paris, London and New York......a story of a southern boy who ventures far from home and lives well ......without much of an income per say but his charm and talent pays the rent. The subject of the story is a sweetheart...and in the end you'll feel you've enjoyed a treat.

What you won't understand, reading this book, (at least I didn't), is that while Eugene may have always been in touch with his "monkey" side, he was seriously intelligent and a master of many genres. Otherwise, he would not have written the brilliant, and prescient, (wrong word, but as close as I can come), preservationist story, JENNIE THE WATERCRESS GIRL, nor, well, ANY of his work. (His poetry, too, is superb!). Whatever Eugene lent his hand to became magical; even his SOUTHERN COOKING, part of the Time-Life Series of cookbooks. That was how I discovered Eugene. I somehow knew the writer of this book was extraordinary, and so sought him out.

No. Eugene Walter as artist, writer, gardener, gourmand, et al, was no lightweight. Although he was a great storyteller, this is only 1/10th the man.

I rather despise both George Plimpton and Katherine Clark's introductions to MILKING THE MOON, though I have to be very grateful to her for writing it. I find their comments condescending.

My sense of Eugene Walter is that he was consumately alone in this life. And lonely. That he suffered a very hard childhood. And, that because he didn't "make it rich", those who are able to turn a name into a NAME, scorned him. But that's my take on E.W. You must have your own.

And Eugene Walter turns up everywhere, for example, turning up in Ronni Lundy's fine cookbook, BUTTER BEANS TO BLACKBERRIES ...Recipes from the Southern Garden, and, much to my supreme delight, in Joan Marble's NOTES FROM AN ITALIAN GARDEN. I cannot wait to see where Eugene will turn up next!

Someone has to release all the tapes Clark made, unedited. I want them. And, someone is missing out on making a fascinating movie.

"As-told-to" scribe Katherine Clark preserves Eugene Walter's voice in the memoir of this "character," as we call folks like him down South. Imagine Truman Capote without the best-selling books and TV fame. This is how Walter comes across in this memoir-autobiography-oral history transcript. He is a Southern Zelig, always showing up in pivotal moments in the development of literature and arts during the mid-20th century. Recalling his days in late 1940s New York, 1950s Paris and 1950s-60s Rome, he drops more names than the New York City phone book. From Greta Garbo to Judy Garland to Frederico Fellini, he hangs out with them all. The best-written portions of the book deal with his native Mobile, however. But who is he? He's the ultimate fly-on-the-wall. He writes some, acts some, translates movie scripts, throws cheap yet creative parties and plays the part of Southern eccentric in Europe. Who is he? He seems like an early 1970s Dick Cavett Show guest: an obscure bon vivant who shows up with George Plimpton to discuss a new Martha Graham dance or to cook a Southern meal. I ran across a mention of the book in an Oxford American magazine article and got a copy after reading a couple of very positive reviews by critics like Jonathan Yardly of the Washington Post. The book also received a 2001 National Book Critics Circle award nomination for biography. It's not for everyone. And I'm probably in that group. But it is intriguing and engaging and, at time, humorous. And at all times, like its subject, unique.

I completely fell under the spell of Eugene Walter but must pay homage to author Katherine Clark for seamlessly allowing us to believe we are spending hour after hour with Eugene as he spins fascinating story after fascinating story about his southern childhood, his friends, both famous and obscure, and what it was like to work in every capacity on Fellini movies. Recently I saw a friend from Mobile and said, "I'm just going to say two words to you. EUGENE WALTER. It was so satisfying to see her face light up and hear her squeal, "I LOVE EUGENE WALTER!!!!"

I suppose I was one of the fortunate few who had a chance to meet Eugene before he died. The people I was working for back in the mid-nineties were friends of his and, therefore, I had the chance to be around him.

Eugene was the consummate storyteller. One of those who never let the truth get in the way of a good yarn. His idea was to make you enjoy where you were and who you were. To inject a little wonderousness into the world. Although based in truth, nothing he told was strictly true.

This book captures him almost perfectly. Although it cannot convey his gestures and antics and voice, it does convey his mind and gift for gab. Pour yourself a glass of port and read with the voice of an eccentric Southern uncle in your head and Eugene starts to come out. It's not quite the same as being there, but this book is as close as any of us will ever be again.

Justin Catanoso's discovery that he is actually related to an honest-to-goodness, canonized Catholic saint begins a journey that takes him not only to a discovery of family and heritage, but also on the exploration of a faith that had long fallen by the wayside.

In some ways, Catanoso's story is the dream of every American whose family lost their roots when they came to this country. He receives an email one day from a woman who wonders if they might be related. It turns out that the American branch of the family has long been missing a deep heritage rooted in the Italian countryside. As well, Catanoso discovers that his grandfather's cousin, Padre Gaetano Catanoso, is being considered for canonization. This unbelievable news, prompts a family visit to Italy where they are lovingly embraced by their newly found relatives and where they begin hearing stories about "the saint."

Catanoso tells the parallel stories of his immigrant grandfather and his saintly cousin vividly and honestly. In so doing, he skillfully pulls us into the uniquely American immigrant experience of his grandfather finding his vocation as an Italian grocer in New Jersey. We see Padre Gaetano tirelessly work to improve Italian peasant life at a time when it often meant a brutish existence of ignorance and want simply because there were no other options. As Catanoso's Uncle Tony fought in World War II he wound up in Italy and that portion of the American experience is also conveyed skillfully while weaving in Tony's AWOL search for family roots.

This would be enough for most memoirs but it is merely a portion of Catanoso's story. The discovery of extended family and his saintly relative comes at a crucial time for his family as his brother, Alan, begins waging a grim fight against cancer. The many devout Catanosos begin praying to "Uncle Gaetano" for a miracle. We become just as engrossed in the fight for Alan's health. Will a miracle save him?

It is at this point that Justin Catanoso begins grappling with his faith. Raised Catholic, he had fallen away from his faith and did not know what to believe any more. Again, in many ways this parallels many Americans' struggles with faith and with the Catholic Church in particular. What are miracles? What does it mean to be a saint? What does it mean to be related to a saint, if anything? A typically pragmatic and independently minded American, Catanoso honestly recounts his struggles, questions, and doubts. In the process, he interviews Vatican officials, recipients of Padre Gaetano's miracles, believers, and skeptics. As Catanoso uncovers facts and explanations, will he be able to find for himself a real and lasting faith?

We become equally engrossed in the search to discover just what a saint shows us as believers. Catanoso's quest becomes ours and, if we are honest, we must contemplate our own faith, belief, and the reality that we are all called to be saints.

On a side note, I found it quite interesting that he got a certain measure of reassurance about the Church from reading "Why I am Catholic" by Garry Wills, since that is a book that many faithful Catholics including myself would avoid due to Wills' criticism of certain tenents of the faith. It is a good lesson that an honest and tenacious seeker can ferret out the information they need in many more places than we could predict.

This is an absolutely fantastic book by a talented, honest, and compelling writer. It is going to be on my list of top books of 2008. Highly recommended.

This review originally was posted at
This is an absolutely fantastic book by a talented, honest, and compelling writer. It is going to be on my list of top books of 2008. Highly recommended. (Originally posted including book excerpts at [...]