France Books

Thirteen-year-old Cesa de Haro lives and breathes the vast and beautiful Rancho del Valle de la Madrugada where she lives grandly with her father, brothers, grandmother and their many servants. Her mother has died eight years before and Cesa has since grown up as a proud, pampered and head-strong child who both chafes at the limitations imposed on women in her culture and experiences her budding sexuality for the first time.

Mexico has lost the war of 1846 to the United States and history soon overshadows Cesa's personal concerns. Her beloved California now belongs now to the crass Americanos who invade her once-secure Rancho. greedy for land, gold and contemptuous of Cesa, her people and the culture of all Californios. A strong and moving coming of age story with a defiant Californio heroine who discovers her interior power as her outer world changes forever.

What a compelling read this was! Cessa, the thirteen-year old protagonist, is a feisty, engaging character on the cusp of womanhood and resisting it mightily. The Gold Rush era and the Mexican-American War provide a thrilling backdrop to this story of change, both natural and forced. Buy this book today, and settle back for a rich, lyrical read that rewards readers of any age. And whatever you do, don't miss the scene with the Grizzly Bear!

This is a part of California history they never taught us in school. Frances Wood takes her young readers to a time, a place and a culture they might otherwise have missed completely. Cesa is the spunky daughter in an aristocratic Mexican family in what will become California, USA. She's grown up in a world of wealth and privilege, fully expecting her life to remain that way. She learns otherwise when the rude, smelly Americans show up, with golden expectations of their own. Madrugada means dawn -- and that's what this is, the dawn of a new era in California, in Mexico, and in the life of this very appealing heroine. The story will tug your heart.

This book does not deal so much with military tactics and the genius involved in planning and executing Operation Overlord, but rather it gives us a close to the ground perspective of what it was like to suffer the discomfort, pain and fear of June 6, 1944. The many different experiences of these men let us see the ingenuity and determination that were inherent qualities of the Allied soldiers and sailors. There are chapters that expound on the Canadian, American, British and German participants in the invasion. A view from the French residents of the area is also presented giving the reader a look at the total experience of those days. I highly recommend this book to any avid student of WWII.

In this book, written in 1959 when memories were still fresh, David Howarth presents the human face of D-Day through the experiences of its participants. Each sector of the operation - airborne and seaborne - is covered and given its full due. Mr Howarth has no bones to pick or axes to grind. Instead, through the stories of a small number of individuals he shows us how 'ordinary' people can, in extreme circumstances, often behave in extra-ordinary ways. He shows respect for all those involved. All of this is presented in a most clear and readable style. Despite its age this is an inspiring book and a must for any student of Operation Overlord.

The clear advantage Howarth's book has over the many written of the famous D-Day on the 6th of June 1944 is that he tells the story through the testimonies of those that survived, but from both sides. Yes, there are way more accounts included from the allied soldiers compared to their German opponents, but the German account-element is there as well and it's what gives you a more spherical view on how those who were there experienced that monumental day.

For students of military history not well or not all acquainted with the Normandy story, there's much to be discovered through this book. First of all the collosal size of the operation, unparallel until that day and since. Thousands of ships as well as planes carried tremendous numbers of infantry and marines, as well as tanks to the shores of Normandy in an attempt to critically shift the balance in the war towards the Allies. Alone the logistic considerations were beyond imagination and a failure in that sector would've resulted in unbelievable disaster. There were, to a degree such failures but not to a level which would have devestated the attackers.

Then the tactical planning itself, an issue all on its own, an issue on which Howarth does an exceptional job informing the reader but without tiring him in the manner other military historians often do by overwhelming him with numbers and codes. This is not the approach he takes as he aims more to inform those not so much interested in the microdetails of the operation.

Even more interesting, and possibly the least known aspect of that operation, was the undertaking of misinforming and confusing the Germans about where and when the attack would take place. A formidable task when one considers how difficult it was to keep a massive assault of that type disguised from enemy intelligence and, more importantly, to even throw them off trail.

As the book reaches the attack itself everything comes alive in its pure horror dimensions. Unexpected failures that resulted in unexpected situations and countless victims. The despair of the German defenders as they discover the apparently hopeless situation they are in with zero airforce support and being pummeled initially by the naval artillery as well as bombed heavily by both American and British planes only to see 1000s of soldiers following to the shores. Still, what commenced was a merciless battle that resulted in piles of bodies in the water, in the sand dunes, in the trences, everywhere.

A book worthy of the event it describes, well written, impeccably researched and accessible to the layman but equally interesting to the specialised reader as well.

An excellent work, it paints a harsh portrait of de Gaulle. A brave man with physical courage to go, he was possibly one of the greatest military thinkers in history. But he was vain, socially and politically unskilled, and an extremely poor judge of those on whom he depended to fulfill his ambitions: Churchill and, especially, Roosevelt.

Unable to gauge these two, or to assess their intentions from their side of the table, he stumbled from miscalculation to miscalculation. Only the greater mistakes of others like Giraud and the fact that most of France was sidelined by occupation and collaboration gave him the opportunities he used and these none too successfully.

Worse for de Gaulle, he could not see, as Roosevelt did so clearly, that post war France would have no greater status than a large U.S. state. Roosevelt toyed with de Gaulle as he would have toyed with any the state governor hopeful seeking his attention. De Gaulle neither understood this nor forgave it. Neither has France.

Although De Gaulle's entries have the ring of memoirs written after the event, they may well have been spoken.
Fateful moments tend to evoke grandeur of speech, especially in French parlance.
The General has always been a reference for Middle East scholars and politicians alike ...........

Jean Lacouture is a great writer, and I love to read his books.

This is an excellent volume on the life of the great French Leader. This book chronicles the early years including DeGaulle's time as a German Prisoner of War during World War I. The book concludes with DeGaulle's triumphant return to Paris after the liberation in 1944 and is hailed as a national hero. While DeGaulle is really a controversial world figure, he is still a person of great historical importance in the world and France in particular. This book is a great read and is well researched and presented. A must read for anyone who wants to know about the life of Charles DeGaulle.

Being a physician, albeit a hearing one, I considered myself fairly insightful about communicating with deaf people. How wrong I was! This book educated me in terms of "deaf awareness", helping me to understand better the challenges, and above all, the incredible hard work that deaf people face when functioning in a hearing world. For the first time, I glimpsed the rationale behind a deaf culture where sign language reigns supreme, where those of us who hear and talk with our voices are superfluous in a rich, rewarding personal life. I imagine that signing feels like putting on a comfortable pair of slippers after struggling all day in uncomfortable leather shoes that do not fit well!

In the book, the three women profiled show us three different approaches to communicating with others in their world. Most importantly for me is that they tell their stories as women - women who have made their way through life with courage, determination and great good humor. Such is the measure of success. In their work, these women have ministered to the deaf, as well as families, schools, and communities. Through this book, they minister to all of us, helping us understand some extraordinary people who cross our paths.

Being a physician, albeit a hearing one, I considered myself fairly insightful about communicating with deaf people. How wrong I was! This book educated me in terms of "deaf awareness", helping me to understand better the challenges, and above all, the incredible hard work that deaf people face when functioning in a hearing world. For the first time, I glimpsed the rationale behind a deaf culture where sign language reigns supreme, where those of us who hear and talk with our voices are superfluous in a rich, rewarding personal life. I imagine that signing feels like putting on a comfortable pair of slippers after struggling all day in uncomfortable leather shoes that do not fit well!

In the book, the three women profiled show us three different approaches to communicating with others in their world. Most importantly for me is that they tell their stories as women - women who have made their way through life with courage, determination and great good humor. Such is the measure of success. In their work, these women have ministered to the deaf, as well as families, schools, and communities. Through this book, they minister to all of us, helping us understand some extraordinary people who cross our paths.

The collaborative effort of Bainy Cyrus, Eileen Katz, Celeste Cheyney, and Frances M. Parsons, Deaf Women's Lives: Three Self-Portraits presents the lives of three deaf women through their own eyes and in their own words. One works as a counselor for mainstreamed deaf and disabled students; one survived harrowing Nazi attacks upon England during World War II; and one has traveled the world to teach administrators and deaf students how to communicate better. Black-and-white photographs illustrate this inspirational triple biography of women who refused to let their inability to hear limit their lives or their dreams.

At the end of the Nineteenth Century, the theme of decadence, decay and perversion permeated the literature. Was it a reflection of a society gone soft, or were artists commenting on a deeper, more insidious type of rot? Thomas Mann used a tuberculosis sanitorium as a setting for a novel that symbolized a moribund society soon to be wracked by the death throes of the Great War. In England, Oscar Wilde celebrated the perverse and in the US, Poe explored the world of death and excessive mourning, rather like our current "goth" fad.

In France, a number of writers used the same themes of decay and decadence to comment on the world. In this collection of 12 novellas and short stories, editor Asti Hustvedt collects significant but minor works that illustrate the obsessions of the Fin-de-Siècle. Some of the works are obscure but worthy, and a few are stunning in their craft. Each work is introduced by the translator, with notes and commentary.

In particular, I found two of the works in this volume absolutely compelling. "Monsieur Vènus" written by Rachilde (pseudonym of Marguérite Eymery) is an exploration of sexual reversal, perversion and hints at BDSM. The fact it was written by a woman, one extremely young, is a shocking look into a mind formed with definite and individualistic sexual ideas in youth. The end is shocking.

J-K Huysmans is better-known. The editor includes a minor work of great artist skill "The Haven" explores decadent naturalism. The setting is a country chateau, and the main characters a Parisian couple, who are evading creditors and their peasant relations who offer then the haven at the farm and chateau while they regroup. But the wife is suffering from what is obviously later-stage syphilis and the hearty peasants make a living as parasites off the inept Parisians. While the superficial world is one of cattle, rustic café brawls and mud, the inner world is explored in a series of vivid nightmares, mixing sexual and necrophilic imagery. The internal state of mind of the main character is explored with amazing psychological detail and the end, though mundane and flat, leaves the reader wondering what horrors lie ahead for the hapless couple. The volume is worth having for this work alone.

This book is a fantastic buy, it's huge and many of the stories are rare and unlikely to be found anywhere else. Perhaps the best collection of pure evil literature, full of incest, drug addiction, criminals, murder, sexual deviants, perverts, and lots of mind-bending, disturbing imagery, it has it all. Following where Baudelaire left off, these writer's plunge deep down into pure, horrific perversity ; sinking to the very bottom, searching out the morbid, hidden depthes of the tormented soul ; and then, instead of shrieking hystericaly and running away, they actually embrace the diseased mind, and use depravity as the ideal weapon for fighting conformity and the upper-classes. They took pleasure in sickness. Anything un-natural and therefore different could be used as an antidote against the bourgeois position of complete homogenity. The ideas and subject matter is much like that found in Huysmans's novel 'Against Nature' , long considered the decadent bible, and in fact includes an excellent, little known novel by him - 'A Haven'. Be warned though, this is dangerous, subversive writeing at it's best ; as you read these stories your own mind might start to decay and fall off in putrid, foul smelling chunks. It also has contributions by Guy de Maupassant, Jean Lorrain, Octave Mirbeau, and many other important writer's. A MUST for any fan of great literature, reading these feverish, degenerate stories will test your sanity, and perhaps even pollute some soul's with it's depravity...

I spent several months reading this fantastic collection of many previously hard-to-find texts, finally brought together in one nicely packaged volume. It's by far the best of its kind that I've seen yet, and there aren't many decadent collections out there -- Dedalus usually has the market cornered for that type of thing. For me, the highlight was "The Future Eve" by Villiers de L'Isle-Adam, a book I've been trying to get for ages. Finding a translation of this obscure, science fiction-decadent novel at all was a delight. Villiers writes of a fictional Thomas Edison who constucts an android for a young lord who finds that his lady love's soul doesn't match her beautiful exterior. However, the marvellously constructed and realistic android (which makes me think of Metropolis, but this was written 40 years earlier!) proves to be almost too 'real' for him as well...the decadent ideal for a woman, in this and other works, is always unobtainable; corpses and statues are easier to deal with.

Each book or collection of stories in this volume is prefaced by an informative, scholarly essay on topics ranging from fetishism to hysteria, including historical information revelant to the texts. Disease, murder, necrophilia, incest, decay, obsession, prostitution, occultism, cruel women, corrupted innocence...J.K. Huysmans remarked that the end of every century is the same, and as we watch another century turn these are all still relevant ideas that have the ability to shock and disturb. Although presented here in translation, the lush, ornate language is preserved -- I like that kind of thing, but if you prefer your literature spare and unadorned, the decadents probably seem very ridiculous.

One of the best things about this book is that it could serve as both as introduction to the genre, or a sourcebook for the completist who has read all the classics and wants to dig a little deeper into the dark world of decadence. If you've read Huysmans, Baudelaire, Mirbeau or any of the other writers whose works are usually still in print and want more...this is the book for you. If you've never heard of any of these writers, but the description sounds interesting -- this is the place to start!

The most incredible book I have ever read! In fact, I have read it so many times, over-and-over again, that I had to have it rebound. So many beautiful sentences written, but this one is amazing: "Her hands clung to my neck; they would not have held me so fast in a shipwreck. And I did not understand whether she wanted me to save her or to drown with her." This is my favourite gift to give to friends, who all love it. The book captivates you from the first page, never lets you go and the ending is absolutely heartbreaking and liberating, all at the same time!

"The Devil in the Flesh" is a simple, powerful love story dealing with a teenage boy's love for a woman who is a little bit older. Set in France during the first world war. One of my favorites. Radiguet wrote this at the age of 17 and died three years later of typhoid. He was a protege of Jean Cocteau and received a fantastic amount of attention from the Parisian literary scene of the early 1920s. A fascinating person and a fascinating book. Read it!

"The Devil in the Flesh" is a simple, powerful love story dealing with a teenage boy's love for a woman who is a little bit older. Set in France during the first world war. One of my favorites. Radiguet wrote this at the age of 17 and died three years later of typhoid. He was a protege of Jean Cocteau and received a fantastic amount of attention from the Parisian literary scene of the early 1920s. A fascinating person and a fascinating book. Read it!

An excellent piece of work for those interested in fashion history or the items of everyday life in Medieval London. The extensive bibliography has been of great help to me in my own research.

I was highly entertained when I came across the section dedicated to the "compact mirror"! I must also point out that the section on pins was very informative. I was a little disappointed that the 3 sections on belt buckles and bits takes up almost half the book.

However, one cannot blame the authors for what the people of London threw away over 500 years ago. What has survived has been revealed in the best possible light with this book. A must have for the avid and sometimes historian. Bravo!

The Museum of London is putting out invaluable book for writers and researched. This is never going to be a bestseller, or even something the casual reader will be interested in. It's very details, extensively photographed artifacts of dress accessories for the Medieval Period, running 1150-1450.

They go into the field work and the finds, how the items are date. They cover girdles (not the kind Marlyn Monroe tells Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon to take off and spread out!) but the style women wore around the waist of their gowns. They ranged from fabric ones to metal. They cover buckles, how they were made, very detailed pictures, then diagrams of how they were constructed. Brooches, buttons, belts, pins, hair accessories, chains, pendants, fingers rights, bells, purses, mirrors, combs, cosmetic sets, needlecases and more. Often they included patterns.

They discuss the metallurgical of these items, how they were made. It will bore most people bloody stiff. To the historical writer of the period, they will be in heaven.

Highly recommended for the Historical Romance writer who wants to get it right. It's perfection for someone wanting the tiny details.

This book, part of a collective of what has become to be known as "the London Excavations" is invaluable for academic or hobbyist alike. Complete in its recording and detailing of dress accessories such as brooches, buttons, buckles, bells, purses,hair accessories, etcetera it provides a complete breakdown of information with excellant quality illustrations. Provides extensive commentary on materials and methods, uses, and contextural information. This is not just a compilation of data, its an extensive body of work on dress accessories of the period and their use.

This book reads like a poem. Its fine in every way, a relaxing reading- experience and very fine photography. Gardening at its best.

After so many years of having, through necessity, to read only technical and quick reference gardening books. It was such a great pleasure to find a quite place in my garden and be totally engrossed in Beth Chatto's Gravel Garden. Billed by the publisher, Blooming Books as ' a book for Australian conditions ' which is true but this book pertaining to gardening with drought resistant plants will be of interest to anyone who gardens in an arid or low rainfall area, or to those who want to have 'a good read' about one gardeners' vision. Who, as she describes, gardens in the 'driest and most windswept piece of soil in England'

Beth's book has all the requirements of any good reference book but it is more than that. I can only describe it as a cross between a novel, diary and reference book. It is an autobiography of her garden, the trials and tribulations, if you will, of creating a specialised area. This is a great benefit to the reader as she has made all the mistakes and now passes on the right way and what to do, to avoid disappointment. We travel through descriptions of the garden as the four seasons come and go. Descriptions that could hold their own in any non fiction novel. Beth paints with words the obvious love of her garden and gardening.

Any great diva needs an equally great accompanist. Beth certainly is blessed, for the photography of Stephen Wooster compliments her book so well and any adjective I use to describe his images would not do him justice. They have to be seen to take in their beauty and his artistry. When I review books I have one main criteria in mind. What is on the front cover is delivered within. Beth Chatto's Gravel Garden past this one in the first 5 pages.

Finally, a book that lives up to, and exceeds, all expectations. Beth Chatto is one of a highly respected group of plantsmen and women in Britain who knows what she is doing, isn't afraid of making mistakes and doesn't mind sharing it all with us. This book is easy to follow, logically set out, and even the use of taxonomy in naming plants makes you eager to look them up to see what Ms Chatto is describing. The descriptions of plantings through the seasons are like the development of a symphony, from the debut of a plant in its season, through its performance and twilight, to the entrance of its successor in the drama, with punctuations and particular mention of any encore performances of which a plant is capable. Ms Chatto knows her stuff. Anyone living in similar conditions to Ms Chatto's in Britain, Australia or America should find this book a must.

I am a 2nd year psychiatry resident, and in that developmental period when differential diagnosis starts to become a real tool in your armamentarium. The book is informative and concise. The introductions to, and discussions of the various psychiatric symptoms are very informative and helpful. They are like having an experienced psychiatrist as your personal tutor. It leaves you wishing the discussions were much longer. The first chapter, which discusses the six diagnostic areas that should not be missed in a psychiatric workup, is a MUST READ for every psychiatry resident, and quite frankly, every resident/medical student regardless of the specialty. It is spot-on and uncanny in its accuracy, and will help make almost immediate sense of nearly ANY psychiatric patient. My diagnostic abilities increased dramatically after reading that chapter. Well worth the money, I highly recommend this book.

Arrived when they said it would and in excellent condition. Decision trees are informative for the new clinician.

Very simple, concise book. does not contain all diagnositic criteria per se, but has excellent differentials and algorithms. Makes a good companion resource for anyone who may deal with psychiatric patients.

It's a great cookbook. The recipes are very easy to follow. You can make great diners in no time. A 10!

I love this book. We've made 3 recipes from it so far that were all simple with only a few ingredients - they have all been delicious! Highly recommend!

Carol Colbert's Easy French Cooking holds no color photos but needs little embellishment. Over seventy recipes from the author's own country have been simplified from their original versions, some with substituted ingredients, and provide easy dishes in 3-6 steps.