I Books

David Homsher's book made me want to explore the AEF's battlegrounds around Chateau-Thierry. He has created a very tidy scrapbook of personal accounts and period photographs that provide snapshots of the doughboy's world. His organization is geographically shrewd: he begins at the Paris airport, and identifies AEF and Great War landmarks as a traveler would encounter them along the route to Chateau-Thierry. Through an eclectic treasure of first-hand accounts, you see the towns and fields as the doughboys and leathernecks did in 1918. The progession of accounts builds a sense of impending drama, recreating the essence of the unfolding crisis of the Chateau-Thierry fighting. The book culminates in a highly detailed description of a small but significant engagement between the 7th Machine Gun Battalion and the German attackers in and around Chateau-Thierry. For serious historians of the AEF, Mr Homsher's guidebook neatly complements the crusty but important military histories of the these battles. To get the most from Mr Homsher's book, plop down in a French cafe the evening before you visit the battlefield and let the wine & words bring you back to 1918.

Subtitled: Chateau Thierry--Then & Now

It is unfortunate that many of us fail to remember the efforts put forward by the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) in bring the Great War of Civilization, better known as World War I, to a close.

Without much doubt, France and Britain were on their last legs. Germany had what proved to be better tactics and a slightly stronger will to see the conflict thru to the end.

It wasn't until General John "Blackjack" Pershing and the men of the AEF landed in France in 1918, and finally made their way to the front, that the conflict slowly began to swing in the allies favor.

Chateau Thierry was what could be considered the linchpin of the Germ salient that was moving inexorably toward Paris and the ultimate capitulation of the French Army.

Davis Homsher has produced a welcome addition into the current library of non-fiction accounts of what took place in and around Chateau Thierry and how the AEF was able to move into the line. With fresh troops and fresh momentum, the allies pushed the German lines back to not only the spring front lines of 1918, but ultimately handed them such a thorough thrashing as to make the cessation of hostilities a reality.

This book is replete with maps, photographs and personal account from the men that were there. American Battlefields of WWI Chateau Thierry--Then & Now is what I hope is the first volume in what should be many and a necessary addition to any Great War Library.

Armchair Interviews says: This book will prove to be a wondrous testament to the men and woman that saved the world from the first German aggression of the past century.

This is a book about fighting men, infantry men whose world was often limited to the view from a hole in the ground, told in their own words.
This is the story, told by those who were there, of the men of the American Expeditionary Force of 1917-1918.
It is the clear and engrossing story of the first battle in America's first European War. It is also an illustration in prose and pictures of life as it was then; a world that is long gone both for the French and the "Sammies".
The "then and now" photos are useful and interesting, as are the town and street maps. Altogether, this a book that will be very useful in exploring the battlefield of Chateau Thierry. It will tell present-day Americans very clearly what Grandfather did in France nearly 100 years ago.

Christina Holstein, author and battlefield guide.

Reviewed by Joe Graham for Reader Views (8/06)

David Homsher has created a guide book for the American battlefields of World War I around the village of Chateau-Thierry. The book is a remarkable accomplishment and it operates on several levels.

First, if the reader is interesting in actually visiting the battlefield sites, Homsher gives the reader detailed instructions on how to reach each location up to how to find the location, where to park, and what precautions to take and what to do once the reader is on the site. And his directions start with the arrival at Charles De Gaulle airport and how to get out of the airport and onto the correct road.

Secondly, if the reader is an armchair traveler, they can enjoy the written text along with a wonderful collection of photographs of the area with pictures of the same buildings or locations before and after the war. The photographic collection also contains many pictures of the German and Allied forces, French refugees and other pictures taken during the war. Homsher also includes maps so the reader can accurately pinpoint the locations of the area in France.

Finally, Homsher has included first hand accounts from the participants in the war. The accounts range from descriptions of field hospitals and battle formations to diaries of the combatants. This material lifts the book above just the casual guidebook. Reading first hand accounts of an event brings an immediacy to the reader that can not be achieved any other way.

A good example is this quote from Pvt. Leo J. Bailey, 9th Infantry, 2nd Division, who wrote in his diary:
"Eighteen hours of marching hip to hip with a seventy-two pound pack, dry
throated in a cloud of dust, had wearied them. Most men lay in full equipment on the cobbles and slept, but some scroungers with keener nose smelled brandy."

This book should appeal to a wide range of readers. Scholars and teachers will appreciate the first person accounts that give a more complete picture of the action than is typically given in the dry accounts of battles that relate who attacked who, and with what results.

I would highly recommend this book for anyone with an interest in the battles of World War I. The book is in a coffee table book format that the reader can pick up and refer to easily. This is a wonderful book because Homsher gives you an actual guidebook to the area, then pictures and maps of the area both before and after the war and then finally the first hand accounts that bring the action of the war to life through the words of the participants.

I want to express my feelings about this book. It has been many years since I read a book so compelling. I took it from the mailbox a little after noon yesterday and save for the time I took to eat dinner, read straight through till 12:30 am, then finished it the next day.
I don't anticipate that I will ever travel to France, but David Homsher's book makes it seem that I have been there already. It has been really an emotional experience - running the gamut from humor, to sorrow to anger and to bursting with pride at the actions of the American troops there. The many descriptions put forth by various people "in their own words" results in a more thorough understanding than could ever be given by just a straight narrative from any single author. I also found so many little "nuggets" of information in Homsher's book that I was unaware of before. By the time I finished the book, I felt that I not only had a thorough picture in my mind of exactly what took place, but that I understood it well enough to explain it to others in detail. I congratulate David on doing such a fine job and highly recommend his book. As a former schoolteacher, I wish it could be a part of the education of every American so that they could truly appreciate what was done by this country in World War I.

Artifacts is well written. The setting is interesting and vividly described. The main characters are quirky and multi-dimensional and represent the kind of people that I would like to know. The author apparently knows about the field of archaeology and knows how to weave this knowledge into a good mystery. Based on this book, I bought the second in the series and enjoyed it, too.

A rivoting mystery about a strong female lead character with a problem: money. The story keeps you turning pages and leaves you satisfied while avoiding caricatures. Yes, Faye is a loner, but what detective worth his or her salt isn't? She's a scofflaw with morals, and her supporting cast is finely and sympathetically drawn.

Evans weaves in a multi-generational plantation history of Faye's home, Joyeuse Isle (cleverly named from a Debussy composition), perched on the hurricane-prone Gulf Coast of Florida.

Satisifying to feminists, history buffs, those with an interest in archeology and meteorology, and just plain old mystery lovers.

The author's background as a scientist, musician, and mom help her create a believable and well developed world full of characters to care about. Fans of Sue Grafton, PD James, and Sara Paretsky will enjoy this book.

I can hardly wait to read Relics, Faye's next adventure.

Artifacts is one of those books that isn't written, it is crafted. It is Evans' first book and it is packed with descriptive detail, multiple plot lines, and interesting characters with lots of back story. This book is a page-turner as the reader gets sucked into Faye Longchamp's struggle to save her historic home, solve the murders of two co-workers, solve the mystery of the disappearing skeleton and... but I don't want to ruin it for you.

Faye is a fascinating character. She has a background in archaeology and knows that the illegal artifact hunting she is doing to generate cash and keep her historic home in the family is wrong, but she is desperate. She is without family and doesn't have much of a support group or a safety net, but she has a goal and she is determined. Evans has given us so much detail about Faye and her situation that the reader has a great deal of empathy for her and her plight. As events unfold, Faye has to make some hard decisions. Evans clearly plotted this book carefully and keeps Faye's choices true to her character - she doesn't take the easy way out and leads the reader down paths that are sometimes unexpected but feel right.

This book is a delight to read. It is a wonderful blend of the past and present and, along the way, you learn a little bit about archaeology, flint-knapping, historic homes, slavery, and the illegal trade in artifacts. This is the kind of book you recommend to everyone you know - and anxiously await the author's next book.

Favorite character? That is a hard one. Joe, Liz, and Magda are all friends of Faye, are great characters, and are all given great moments in which to shine. I think it has to be a three-way tie. Did I guess it? Yes - but that didn't detract from the book one bit. Will I read another? Just as soon as it comes out!

[...]

Archaeology student Faye Longchamp is struggling to keep her ancestrail home of Joyeuse on Florida's northern gulf coast by illegally digging up artifacts on federal lands and selling them on the black market. However, one day she unearths a human skull and it doesn't look like it's been in the ground for a couple hundred years, more like only three or four decades, so it's not fresh, but not an artifact either, and judging by the head wound, this woman met a violent end. She decides to try and find out who the dead woman was on her own, as she can hardly go to the police and confess that she'd found the skull by illegally pot-hunting.

Then the next day two students on a legitimate dig she'd been working on wind up missing, then their bodies are found in shallow graves and she has to wonder if their deaths are tied in with her own dead person. And, of course, there is a very bad guy out there who wants to keep this all quiet, so Faye is in a spot of trouble.

ARTIFACTS won the Benjamin Franklin Award for Excellence in Mystery and it is easy to see why. This is a story that will keep any mystery buff glued to his chair till the reading is finished. A darned good debut, one you won't be able to put down, that what this book is.

As an archeology-phile, I was predisposed to like this first mystery by Mary Anna Evans. But there is so much more there than just archeology and mystery. Her characters are decidedly physical and real, the disparate elements of her plot, with the helping hand of Fate, dovetail perfectly to keep you reading until all the loose ends have been woven into place.

Faye Longchamp is a tough, smart, gutsy heroine who still savors her few chances to be feminine. Joe Wolf Mantooth, the simple-hearted Indian who shares her home, is a complex, realistic hero. It takes all the wit and strength that either of them has to get through what life throws in their way.

When the book opens, Faye has discovered the remains of a murdered woman while doing some illegal "pothunting" on Federal lands. She can't rest knowing the woman is alone and unavenged, but how can she report her discovery without sending herself to jail? By researching the "case" on her own, until she thinks she has the solution.

But almost immediately, two students working on a legitimate excavation with Faye are shot to death and buried in shallow graves. Does it have anything to do with Faye's find? While she works to make enough money selling black market artifacts to keep up the property taxes on her ancestral home, Joyeuse, she is dogged by the spectre of a man who has killed before, by the large-scale artifact thieves operating just a short distance from her, and by the outside world which has only suspicion for people who live without need of society or technology.

"Artifacts" is a smashing story, blending excerpts from the journal of several generations of former owners of Joyeuse with the contemporary occurrences which Evans weaves into a perfect, but never simple, tapestry of a story.

The title to this book says it all. It really is the Best IT Sales and Martketing book ever. NUFF SAID!!!!

YOU NEED TO BUY THIS BOOK if you want to turn your IT Business into a profitable one.

I cant wait for Ericks next book, hopefully he wont keep us waiting too long :-)

At a recent VAR meeting I attended, several successful IT services CEOs were asked what one thing they did to build a stable successful business. Every single one of them said marketing was the key to their business' success.

Most small IT services firms don't market. That's why they stay small. If you want to grow a consistent services business, buy this book and start marketing now. You will recoup several times this book's cost with your first marketing campaign.

Received this book at approximately 10:30am read the first few pages and cancelled my schedule for the day (first time I've done that in 13+ years in business) to read it from cover to cover in one sitting - and then again before the weekend was out just to ensure and assure I had gotten as much as I could before starting out on this amazing adventure. - Two (2) suggestions for you the reader of this review: 1) buy this book today - you would not be reading this review if your were not considering it - just do it. You will NOT be dissapointed. 2) Do Not skimp on the shipping you will kick yourself for every day you wasted!

This book is jam-packed with valuable insight to assist IT VAR's in selling and marketing to Small Business. It is required reading for my company's sales and marketing staff. I highly recommend it to anyone whether new to the business or an old veteran.

I am a business owner interested in the Managed Services market space. I have read so much about Managed services but have not found a step by step guide on how to implement the managed services business plan or sell those services to clients. What I needed were step by step guides on both the topics. I was introduced to Erick's books by another associate. This book and "The Guide to a Successful Managed Services Practice" by Erick were exactly what I was looking for. Erick is not just a subject matter expert in Managed Services but has practiced and implemented his teachings and recommendations. He explains several key concepts and best practices on Managed Services, Deliverables, Pricing, How to identify clients, sell, support and maintain the services and build a long term win-win relationship with the clients. The coverage on How to Hire and Train your sales staff is worth its weight in gold. Included along with these 2 books are several forms, analysis tools and documents which make the sales process a whole lot easier with predictable results. These are the bibles for my managed services business and I refer them frequently. If you are serious about building a profitable managed services business, you must have these books.

I like this book, certainly what I have read of it. I'm now digging around near page 75, and it struck me that for the first time I really "get it" - In particular, this was about the use of the Legendre transform. The authors start with a very gentle introduction of it, and then, while things become more abstract, the text never jumps too far and never leaves the reader too much in puzzling. It's ought to be studied though, and it's not "easy".

This book is a "must have" for those wanting to study topics in functional analysis.

Ok, not everyone needs to (or wants to) know calculus of variations. But if you are among the ones who, this is a great book to get started with (assuming you are in grad school and have a decent handle on calculus and some basis in dealing with differential equations). The text is clear and concise, and the financial investment is minimal. A good buy!

This is a classic text and I would recommend it to graduate students and mathematicians who need a review of the subject. Great for us physicists as well.

As a physicist I want to find a book to refresh my memory on theoretical mechanics. I came across this one, and after reading its first 4 chapters in continuation, I kow I don't need any other book. What a treat! Written by a past master, the book costs you next to nothing; yet as it's written by sure hand, it hasn't slightest pretention, just plain and insightful, natural and smoth flow, leads you almost effortlessly fowward. Even though I learned the subject before, I don't know of or even imagine a better exposition. Wow, I started to love Russian mathematicians.

This is a fun search & find book with a Christmas theme. My niece, nephew and teenage sons all had fun looking for the hidden items. Some items are simple to find and others extremely difficult.

If you like I Spy books and looking for things this book is great. The pictures are very imaginative. I really enjoyed it. Great for children and adults. Wonderful for Christmas fun.

Excellent for spotting the finer things in pictures. My 7 year old loves to look at these books over and over again.

I have the entire series of "Can You See What I See?" and my son at 4 1/2 really enjoys these. I bought his first book when he was about three. It has helped his visual skills so much that he can find some of the objects faster than I can.

Walter Wick books are a favorite of my 5-year old, and this one is a favorite of mine. The photos are absolutely beautiful and full of Christmas spirit. Although kids love the repetition of finding the same things over and over in hidden picture books, adults can get tired of it fast enough. But the photos in this book hold your attention like a coffee-table art book, making it a pleasure to find five Santas in the Gingerbread house for the umpteenth time.

If you have a child who's parent is in Iraq, get this book. It's a cute little book that helps the child learn the process; like Daddy leaves, calls and writes, we do fun things while he's gone, we send packages, he misses some stuff, but then he comes HOME!!! It was extremely age appropriate for my 4 year old, but I cried the first couple of times I read it to her!!!

My 4 yr. old grandson was having a hard time with daddy deploying. Both my son and grandson loved this book and my son was able to use some of the content to talk about why he was going to Iraq. I very highly recommend this book. It's well worth the money.

This book has been great for my kids. It has really helped them with are getting ready for Daddy's deployment. Thank you to all the other readers of this book and there reviews.

This book helped us beyond any expectations I had. My husband is on his second tour in Iraq, and my kids are having a difficult time coping with his absence. My daughter (6) and son (3) both beg me to read it almost daily. Warning to parents!!! I did tear up a little- Especially on the dedication page.

This is an excellent book. Yes, it is a tear-jerker at times, but it realistically covers a wide variety of emotions and situations caused by deployment. I know it has helped my almost-three-year-old understand and accept what is happening to our family because of her father's deployment. One aspect about this book I also really appreciate is that, even though it tells about the hardships caused by deployment, the book remains positive, focusing on uplifting and hopeful things. I TOTALLY recommend this book to anyone with younger children facing their Daddy's being gone for deployment.

As a teacher for boys and girls in juvenile reform centers, Mr. Preston has brought to print what more than 60 percent of my kids have suffered. This book is great for high school students and all teachers should take the time to read it and place it in their school libraries.
"Sometimes good people do bad things. A t some point , and to different degrees, we all succumb to our environment" (Frederick Preston)

This is an excellent first novel from Mr. Preston. He tells the story of January Calhoun and how circumstances in life can cause an intelligent young man to make the wrong decisions for his life. I enjoyed the characters and how we were able to see how they became the people they are. This is a good book for high schoolers to read. For adults it lets us know how important parents can be in guiding their children. My book club SILK (Sisters Increasing Literary Knowledge) really enjoyed this book and are looking forward to a movie based on it and a hopefully a sequel later.

When I finished this book, I felt like I just left the movie theatre. It was very exciting to read and it keep me wanting more and more. Great piece of work and hope hear more from James Preston.

My book club, "Spirit III", based out of Atlanta, Ga really enjoyed reading this novel. The antisipation of January's next move allowed the book to be an easy read. Once you get started, it's hard to put down. The author is very intelligent and has a keen sense of writing. We had the pleasure of having Frederick J.Preston, at one of our meetings. The are so many young men in the world that are striving to do the right thing, but sometimes this is a hard task for them without proper guidance. Mr. Preston, "broke it down"... Do AS I SAY NOT AS I DO. Read the novel and you'll understand just what point the author is making. I'd also recommend this novel to "rising" 9th grade young men.

this book has a LOT of messages for people of all races, ages, and backgrounds...I urge everyone to pick up this book and read it, more than once...!

I'm overwhelmed by this novel. It's about history, religion, travel, philosophy, phychiatry, biology--you name it and it's there. It's about a truly wise mother and father and their 5 children on a mission to do "God's work" in earthquake ravaged Naples, Italy. Domini knows Naples like the back of his hand, and he knows about traditional family and the workings on the inside. He knows about graft and people in high places trying to climb higher. I asked Domini if he is a Christian because only a Christian could have written about the inner workings of the Holy Spirit. Love this bookfor being politically incorrect and not apologizing about it. Janice Daugharty

John Domini is an extremely talented writer and all his skills are on display in Earthquake I.D. This is a suspenseful story full of mystery, believable characters, and wonderful images. The action begins in the opening pages when an American family arrives in Naples to help earthquake victims, and on their first day in the city are robbed by muggers on a motorcycle: "An elbow caught her, and as the cycle roared away the pain flared in her mind's eye in the shape of one attacker's kite-like blue bandanna--the lone bit of evidence the family would have for weeks to come." There are great moments like this on every page and the plot continues to thicken as we learn more about a colorful cast of characters, many of whom turn out not to be who they seem to be when we first meet them. Lots of well-timed surprises. This is the perfect novel to take on vacation.

EARTHQUAKE I. D. joins a not-so-lengthy list of great novels about Americans in Italy: these, a middle-class family led by an Italian American wife and mother, heroically adrift in her marriage and in a city she's had foisted upon her. Domini deftly fleshes out not only the emotional life of her family and its middle child, the "miracolino," but also contemporary Naples itself, a city of refugees, hucksters, facilitators and half-samaritans. The lives of all Domini's characters play themselves out in colorful threads of plot, which snake through the novel like medieval alleys and catacombs, and which Domini masterfully brings together in a series of climactic scenes that brought great joy to this middle-class American reader.

The colorful chaos of Naples is a huge part of this book's intriguing plot, filled with fully developed characters. Great holiday and great book club stuff! The central character, Barbara, is a rare case of a woman past forty, given the complexity and sensuality of an ingenue.

One John Domini novel equals about three semesters of creative writing. Accordingly, his latest book, "Earthquake I. D.," qualifiies him for a doctorate.
The book is about an earthquake, except that it isn't. It's about an accident that should have killed, a marriage that did die, and how a family teetering on oblivion manages to survive an earthly upheaval.
No ex-newspaperman should be allowed to review such a novel as "Earthquake I. D." News writers summarize in the first paragraph, then fill in the details until they run out of room, maybe 21 inches.
Domini, however, tints his narrative with subtlety, sympathy and shock; the reader has to pay attention.
That done, "Earthquake I.D." leaves the reader with a remarkable sense of fulfillment.

Walt Shotwell, retired Des Moines Register reporter/columnist

If you haven't read Regeneration, you are making a big mistake if you read The Eye in the Door before Regeneration. Regeneration sets the stage for The Eye in the Door and provides much background information that you need to appreciate this book.

Those who liked the first book in the Regeneration trilogy, Regeneration, will absolutely adore The Eye in the Door. The characters from Regeneration return, and you have a chance to find out the consequences of the treatments they received from Dr. William Rivers in Regeneration. Pat Barker builds on the tensions, damage, doubts, and despair of mid-World War I to show how much more desperate matters were for the British by the spring of 1918.

In developing these themes, Pat Barker does a masterful job of explaining how a soldier has to operate both by emotion and by objective distance in order to function. From there, she helps us use the crucible of war to see how that duality is important to everyday functioning for all people.

As the title indicates, the book builds on a central metaphor of everyone being under observation as doubts build about Britain's ability to win the war. Those on the margins are most under pressure and at greatest risk.

I thought that the portrayal of Lieutenant Billy Prior was brilliant. He comes across as the kind of complex, interesting character that can help us learn a lot about Ms. Barker's messages for us. The eye metaphor is nicely developed in the context of Billy's life.

Brava, Ms. Barker!

THE EYE IN THE DOOR is the second installment in Pat Barker's marvelous Regeneration trilogy. In this volume the principle characters of Dr. Rivers and Prior have left Criaglockhart War Hospital and are now living in London. Although Dr. Rivers has taken a new position treating shell-shock soldiers who have returned from the front in France, he continues to keep in touch and treat his former patients from Criaglockhart, especially Prior. Amidst the bombing and blackouts of wartime London, Prior continues to suffer from war neurosis as he embarks on solving a mystery that involves his childhood friends and acquaintances. He is confronted by England's societal fixation with fear and scapegoating of those who are believed to deter from the war effort (mainly war deserters and homosexuals). Individuals are often forced to hide their true attributes from society during this time of societal finger pointing and blaming. As in the previous volume of this trilogy, the characters of Prior and Dr. Rivers are well developed and nuanced. I continually enjoy reading about their trials and tribulations, and look forward to reading the third and final volume in this trilogy.

THE EYE IN THE DOOR (spoilers)

Ms Barker's epigraph, a quote from Stevenson, sets the tone: "It was on the moral side, and in my own person, that I learned to recognize the thorough and primitive duality of man. I saw that, of the two natures that contended in the field of my consciousness, even if I could rightly be said to be either, it was only because I was radically both."

I am hampered in critiquing the trilogy, since I've read only the first two works, REGENERATION and THE EYE IN THE DOOR. The first of these concentrates on the relation between the enlightened, humane Dr Rivers and the war hero/war protester Siegfried Sassoon, who has been labeled a war neurotic ("shell-shocked") in order to avoid confronting his rational case against the war. Both Rivers and Sassoon are historical characters who the author effectively fictionalizes (their dialogues, etc).

The second novel focuses on the relation between Rivers and Billy Prior, a relatively minor character in the first. The book is set on a wider stage than REGENERATION, which was confined to the (real) mental hospital of Craiglockhart in Scotland. Here we are in London, during the crisis produced by the initial success of the Germans' spring offensive in 1918. As happens during defeats, the search is on for scapegoats seen as undermining the war effort, groups like pacifists and ... who are seen as destroying the nation's "moral fiber." Ludicrously, the leading anti-... crusader, lays the blame on the Germans, who are said to have sent homosexual agents over before the war to corrupt English youth.

Billy Prior, on medical leave from the front, works for a counter-intelligence agency, but his loyalties are divided, since his earliest friends are pacifists and "conchies" (conscientious objectors). The result of these divided loyalties is a split consciousness, where the fugue state ("Hyde") takes over at times, doing things that the "daytime" Billy is not aware of, but whose consequences nevertheless he must face. It is this split consciousness that Rivers must deal with-and on one occasion, he deals directly with "Hyde," who speaks of Billy in the third person.

At the crisis of the novel, Billy's alter ego betrays his closest friend, something that the daytime Billy at first denies doing, but which he finally comes to suspect he has actually done. Rivers treats the psychological phenomenon by making Billy see that it is basically Oedipal, that he actually wished to kill his father, who had, in Billy's sight and hearing, beat and abused his mother. One manifestation of this hatred is "Hyde's": punching the agent provocateur Spragge, who looks like Billy's father. To complicate the issue, his father is a socialist/pacifist, a fact which may contribute to Billy's ambivalent attitude to his pacifist friends, one of whom he helps, as he betrays the other.

Sassoon make another appearance here, having gone back to France (partly at Rivers' suggestion), and once again been wounded (by friendly fire). But Sassoon's appearance doesn't seem to contribute to the plot of this novel, tho it may have a role to play in the trilogy as a whole. (Maybe his divided consciousness is relevant, since he was very effective at killing Germans, but at home becomes a "dove") Another seemingly extraneous thread is Manning, one of Billy's sex partners.

But basically a rich novel, recalling a key point in Western history. In many ways, WWI was more traumatic than WWII, since it occurred after almost a century or relative peace in Europe. And, as Barker makes clear, WWI was harder on soldiers than was WWII.

Trivia: Why were French troops show on the covers of the paper editions of the first two novels? They play no role in the novels themselves (tho they played the major role on the Western Front).

People existing against a war background-normal people doing normal things whilst shouldering the burden of their experiences, their fears and societies norms and expectations.

A lovely book that always has the lightest of touches in the darkest of moments. Nothing is simple and nothing is complicated, but everything is ambiguous and dwarfed by "the front" and what is expected.

The writing is always simple, but the ideas, concepts and dilemmas dealt with are complex and impossible to resolve. Class and duty are themes; the most interesting theme in my opinion is that of being a pacifist, a father figure to your men and a violent war hero simultaneously. (By the nature of things, war heroes are violent.)

My one regret is that I have only just realised that this book is part of a trilogy and that I have read it out of sequence... although on the positive side it means I have two more books to explore. I would strongly recommend this book; I have just gone and bought one of Sassoon's books as a direct result of it awakening school hood poems by him and Wilfred Owens.

After reading "Regeneration", the second novel of the trilogy "Eye in the Door" expands in terms of characterization and plot complexity. Whereas Regeneration is superb in its exploration of the consciousness of Siegfreid Sassoon and his psychiatrist, Dr. River; Eye in the Door expands the character of Billy Prior to become one of the most psychologically well developed and complex characters in English fiction.

Billy Prior , a bisexual, has both male and female lovers in this novel. These relationships are embedded in the homophobic atmosphere of war torn London. Prior, suffering from "shell shock" struggles with his identify of war hero and pacifism. He struggles with childhood trauma in a society where repressesions are let lose in a war charged atmospher.

The book is beautifully written. Whereas Regeneration explores Sassoon's struggles to brng meaning into a meaningless situation, Eye in the Door explores more of the societal struggles with the war and individual reactions to the pressures of a war time society.

I loved this book and would give it 10 stars if I could.

This book is darling and fun to read with a kindergartener/first grader. If you like the other "Fancy Nancy" books, then you'll be pleased with this one. You can't beat the price.

This book is a good self-reading story with a fun character my second grader can relate to.

My daughter loves Fancy Nancy books. I think the character is cute and perfect for little girls. This is a starter book, but I figured she could pass it on to younger friends and get them started on Fancy Nancy after she reads it.

My five year old daughter enjoys listening to Fancy Nancy and recites pages and those 'fancy words' throughout her day.

She's charming...and you can't help but love her. How cute it was that she thought she had finally met a real French person...oh well, Paris, Texas isn't very close to the Riveria, but as the book says, she did make a new friend, and that's a good thing too.