Foreign-market Books

This has to be one of the nicest novella's I have ever had the pleasure of perusing. I guess one should expect nothing less from this Maupassant masterpiece. After all, Maupassant (along with Chekov) is considered one of the founding fathers of the modern day short story, and this is considered to be his greatest work. There is more to this book than the old Cain and Abel story of sibling rivalry. It's also a telling tale of filial love, forgiveness, and the steadfast, unconditional love of a mother. It's very powerfully told with all the passion and emotion one would expect from a disciple of Flaubert and a friend of both Zola & Turgenev.

I will definitely be placing this work on my top shelf of favorites. It is one of those rare stories that will leave you thinking about it long after you turn the last page. Maupassant created a character in Pierre that is so sublimely human, such a complex, abstruse, big ball of paradox. At times, it is easy to despise him and at other times you can't help but identify with, and feel compassion for the man. After all, how heartless can one be not to sympathize with a man who has gone his whole entire life playing second fiddle to his more attractive, amicable, and younger brother Jean. Jean gets the girl, he gets the inheritance, gets the luxury flat Pierre originally had his sights on, and most importantly perhaps (because this has been going on since childhood) Jean is his parent's favorite. Come now, it's so easy to pass judgment on this man, but who among us wouldn't be experiencing the same inner torment that plagues Pierre?

"There was within him some little place that hurt, one of those almost imperceptible bruises that cannot be located, yet fidget, tire, depress and irritate you, an unidentifiable, trifling pain, a sort of seed of unhappiness."

I highly recommend this one!

I haven't seen any other edition of this novella, but this one is very good in analysis. It is a pleasure to read the footnotes while reading the book, as if you are listening to a discussion in a French literature class.

WHAT CAN BE EXPECTED TO HAPPEN IN A FAMILY WHEN ONE OF ITS MEMBERS INHERITS A LARGE SUM OF MONEY? EVERYBODY IS HAPPIER AND BETTER OFF, RIGHT? WRONG! AS WE SEE FROM THIS STORY, THE WHOLE FABRIC OF THE FAMILY CAN BECOME TORN. YET, BY EMPLOYING SOME SUBTLE TACTICS, MEMBERS OF THE FAMILY CAN FIND A WAY TO STAY TOGETHER. AT A BIG PRICE THOUGH, BECAUSE ONE OF THE MEMBERS OF THE FAMILY HAS TO HOLD HIMSELF ALOOF IN ORDER TO PRESERVE FAMILY BOUNDS. A VERY DELICATE STUDY OF THE SUBJECT!

This is a short novel, easy to follow, and enjoyable to read.

Here's what it's about basically. There's these two brothers, right?--as the title indicates. One of them gets a really nice inheritance from a family friend. The other brother gets NOTHING. He's jealous of his brother for his good fortune, and gets suspicious about WHY his brother got the inheritance. He finds out that it's because their mother had an affair with the family friend and his brother was born illegitimately from the affair. He confronts his mother about it and she admits it. That's why his brother got the inheritance, because he was the family friend's true son, it was a shameful secret that the mother kept from her husband (their father). That's all there is to it. It's not a complex book and the story's pretty simple, but the underlying psychology is really interesting and the book is very well-written--very tight and engaging. Maupassant's best novel, I would say.

David Rehak
author of "Love and Madness.

This short novel just blew me away with intense and detailed characterzations and a plot that builds tension based on the interaction between the members of a family that is nearly rocked by a seemingly positive development. The two grown brothers are established as near opposites in almost every detail and when one inherits money from an old family acquaintance the reason behind their differences becomes the driving force of the story and it's revelation nearly rips the family apart.
A short novel that will stay with you for some time after reading it.

I am a long time reader of DailyFX site and find it very useful.
One tool that caught my attention some time ago was the COT report column, write by Jamie Saettele.
The book goes further in explain the COT report itself, how to generate indicators from COT data, how to interpret it and, finally, how to use it as a tool to help trigger trades.
Well explained, with plenty of charts, it also has an introduction to Elliot Wave theory, largely used by the author in his tracking of markets.
I recommend the book because of it introduces this subject in a very straight forward way, easy to understand and apply immediately in your trading routine.

Perhaps it is because I am a woman, but I have long believed that emotions and psychology can move markets more than fundamentals, and Jaime Saettele knocks this concept out of the park in this book. As retail investors like myself begin to dabble more in the foreign exchange markets, it is important to understand how to rationally interpret market sentiment amidst the daily volatility. In these days of information overload with CNBC and Wall Street Journal constantly bombarding the investing public, Saettele outlines how to correctly identify scenarios where going against the majority can translate to profit. This book was highly recommended to me, and I would do the same to anyone looking for an intelligent and entertaining take on how to be a successful long-term investor in the Forex markets.

As someone who has become increasingly leery of equities (who hasn't), I needed an introduction to a new market. When a friend recommended the Forex market, I bit immediately. The next thing he recommended was Saettele's book. I couldn't be happier with where it's taken me, and I don't miss sweating my stocks one bit. Pick up this book.

Perhaps the first truly comprehensive guide to contemporary Forex investing, Saettele's "Sentiment in the Forex Market" is both a well-rounded guide to forex investing and a thoroughly enjoyable read. Advocating an approach that takes into account both established technical methods of analyses, and the equally, if not more important psychological factors that drive the forex markets, Saettele constructs a fortified, succinct methodology. Frequently hilarious, Saettele's greatest gift to the reader is one that eludes most all writers of investment guides - it's actually enjoyable to read. Saettele's technical know-how is crystal clear from the beginning, but it would be (as is frequently symptomatic of books of this sort) waisted without his equally impressive ability to distill the mathematical complexities of his research into coherent, useful guidance. A well-rounded and learned book by a bright young analyst, "Sentiment in the Forex Markets" should emerge as cornerstone for a new generation of investors.

Jamie truly understands how forex markets work from a historical and current standpoint. His insight will prove to be relevant for years to come. I highly recommend.

Author discusses changes in young people's lifestyle over past decade in the big cities of China. I have seen a lot of these changes myself during recent trips over past 4-5 years . Groups of young people in China & here(U.S.) are very similar. The book reviews these advances through the themes of clothing,travel,music and other topics that young people have in common

I gave this book 3 stars because it is interesting and exciting to hear about China and what is happening with its youth. Unfortunately, the fact that the book seems to be solely written in order to allow Western corporations to infiltrate the Chinese market really cheapens the stories within.

The tone rarely strays from quotes such as: "China's young consumers face something their parents rarely, if ever, did: choosing which products and experiences best fit their personality and lifestyle". As well as statements like: "China's newest generation is proud of its country and optimistic about it growth to world leadership in this century". I am sure that this is true, that many of China's youth are proud and optimistic, but there should be some qualifiers to this - at least more than passing references to the censorship of the internet, the earlier student struggles at Tiananmen square... SOMETHING more than "As long as you are not disruptive, the government does not care. Our government wants to help us get rich" (p. 29)

I think what is ultimately dismaying that this book is published by New Riders - in general I expect more from them...

A very interesting book. In the end it shows the young people of China are no different from those anywhere else. The excellent photos make the book even more enjoyable.

This book sets out to describe the younger Chinese consumers who are shaking things up - and along the way, brings them to life with good storytelling and lots of photos. If you don't know what Li-Ning, Yonghe, Baidu and QQ are or why they're important, you should - and this book will get you thinking about them.

After reading The World Is Flat, I have become much more aware of how important it is to recognize and understand other major economies beyond our own and how they affect us -- our work, our thinking and planning, and what our own future will be like. Clearly, understanding the culture of a people is seminal to understanding how their systems work and how they may be likely to evolve, affecting us. China's New Culture of Cool is definitely an important addition to that particular bookshelf of knowledge. The images are tantalizing, too.

A professor has gone around interviewing currency traders and decides to write a popular book about the subject from an ethnographic standpoint. The target audience is neither academics nor traders. I would describe the target audience as laypersons wanting to learn about the foreign exchange markets, but that are not interested in trading themselves. This must be a tiny, tiny target audience

This was a very enjoyable quick book to read about the internal workings of the foreign currency exchange markets. It is not intended for FX daytraders, but traders should find it interesting. It is not intended for academics, but a grad student in a related field will likely find it to be at just the right level of abstraction (not too deep in the weeds and not too superficial). It is mainly written in the form of polished-up interviews, and the author does a great job of breathing life into the representative players he portrays for these markets. Very well done.

Robert G. Williams is a broad thinker and a very fine writer. While his books are tightly focused on political economics, they move gracefully through other diverse realms. Religion, anthropology, the arts, literature, communications technology are only a few of the subjects he walks around in. Like Michael Pollan (The Carnivore's Dilemma), he sees large organizing principles at work in things that are familiar to us all. Like John McPhee, he has an eye for character, and a talent for describing encounters with interesting people who do interesting things.

Williams' earlier books dealt with Central American agriculture, so they aimed at a somewhat specialized reader. The Money Changers should be interesting to anyone who wants to know more about how money works. And who doesn't?

The Money Changers is Williams' best book yet. It is a mature, seamless blend of high scholarship and fascinating narrative.

The full review in March 2007, CHOICE, written by Ingo Walter, an eminent scholar in the field of international finance, was helpful to me. Here are some excerpts:
"This is a nontechnical exploration into the mechanics of the foreign exchange market, which Williams (Guilford College) nicely motivates by starting with an ordinary retail transaction--an ATM withdrawal of local currency in a foreign country--and tracing it through the wholesale foreign exchange markets to show what actually happens. In doing so, the author provides an intuitive way to explore the most important and arguably the most efficient market in the world, which makes international trade, investment, and financial transfers possible......The discussion is up-to-date, and the use of dialogue makes the book very accessible to the intelligent but uninformed reader. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers; all levels of undergraduates." --- Ingo Walter, Seymour Milstein Professor of Finance, Corporate Governance and Ethics at the Stern School of Business, New York University.

Robert G. Williams has written an entertaining and informative book about how the world currency markets work. He starts with a story about a summer trip he and some students took to Europe and the impact the fluctuations in the local currency against the dollar impacted their budget for the trip and how he was able to manage that best through smarter currency exchange.

The rest of the book has him taking us through the different aspects of currency trade, the size of the market, who the players are, the role of computers and software versus people exchanging currency on the trading floor, the various philosophies of how these markets work, and how currency exchange affects you and me even without our knowing it.

I don't know if all the conversations he discusses in the book are devices to keep what could have been a dry subject more entertaining or if he is doing some very good reporting. In the larger sense, it doesn't matter because we read the book for the information the author shares with us. That he also makes it quite readable is quite an achievement. There are a helpful number of charts, tables, and graphs. They do not get in the way and are all pretty easy to understand.

This is a very good introduction to these important and quite huge markets (bigger than you would likely guess) for the student and the interested general reader. Since the news often talks about the movements of currency and how this or that is over or undervalued, you might want to bolster your own understanding of what is really going on rather than the vague arm waving of the journalists.

This interesting book is a great place to start.

I love Zola and this was no exception. I don't know how he does it-he is never boring. His stories always enthrall me. This is a wonderful book about the beginnings of consumer culture, modern advertising, mass retailing, materialism, the forerunners of today's malls and the forcing out of small specialty shops and the family owned-store in the late ninteenth-century. It has so much relevance today. In addition, you will really like the heroine, Denise. She is lovable and sympathetic throughout the entire book.

And I couldn't help liking Mouret, though he is of course the crass modern villain of the tale. (He was earlier seen in Zola's "Pot Luck".) Although he is a symbol of everything cutthroat and reprehensible about capitalism, I kind of wanted to believe in his optimistic ingenuity and in the developing friendship between him and Denise. Denise seemed to be tempering him with her pragmatic socialism.

At any rate, the intro to the book-here is a SPOILER so don't read on if you don't want to know what happens-anyway in the INTRO,


...which you should NEVER read first, they always give away the ending- said that only the most naive person would believe in the happy ending, that when Mouret marries Denise all's well that ends well. His obsession with her does have obvious parallels to the way he tries to make women feel about certain commodities. Still, I can't resist a good Cinderella story, and it is fun to think of Mouret marrying Denise and bringing her back to Au Bonheur des Dames, on his arm, "all powerful" (no doubt "tout puissant" in the original French).

That will show those snooty shopgirls that even a poor provincial girl can strike it rich! Despite being somewhat sucked in by the "love" story-in my defense Mouret DID seem to respect Denise's noble qualities-I do agree with Zola's critique and criticisms and I really think they're relevant.

This story works on so many levels, as so many of Zola's books do-it's highly entertaining, I mean as entertaining as fun as any contemporary fiction-and it's also historically engaging, morally sound, educational and even has current relevance. Everyone should read him!

The eleventh novel in the Rougon-Macquart series, this book picks up where the last installment left off. Octave Mouret, featured in Pot-Bouille, also has a lead role in this novel. Through a fortunate marriage to a bride who dies not long afterward, young business man Mouret is left with a thriving department store named Au Bonheur des Dames. Through a natural business sense and a flair for promotion, he builds this store into the grandest mecca for shopping in all of Paris, in fact in the entire world. Soon the store swallows up the neighboring real estate, putting his old-school competitors out of business with his new brand of commerce. A few of the established firms, however, hang on for a grueling battle with this Goliath of retail.
At this point in history, department stores were a new invention, and a few stores in Paris totally revolutionized the way the world did business. Zola captures the excitement of that time. He obviously admires the revolutionary entrepreneurs for their efficiency, ingenuity, and showmanship, but he also laments the fall of the traditional Parisian shopkeeper. As Zola often does, he sets up a conflict between the two opposing philosophies, then brilliantly defends both sides of the argument. He also studies the consumers, and explores the growing obsession with shopping that blossomed among an enlarging middle class with disposable income. The depiction of the workings of the giant enterprise are interesting, and the store is staffed by a host of vividly-drawn characters. The main protagonist of the book is not Mouret, but Denise Baudu, a poor girl from the provinces who comes to Paris to work as a saleswoman. Zola is usually so good at creating realistic characters, warts-and-all, but Denise is so squeaky clean and noble that she comes across as too perfect to be true. She belongs in a melodrama, and the more the book concentrates on her, the more the story devolves into just that. Zola's literary style, Naturalism, calls for an exhaustive accumulation of sensory details. Unfortunately, these details form long, often tedious descriptions of store displays. On the whole, this is a good book, worth reading, though not one of Zola's masterworks. I would recommend reading Pot-Bouille (aka Pot Luck or Restless House). It is a much better novel.

What a great book! In Au Bonheur des Dames, Zola does his usual fabulous job of handing you a slice of 19th century French life between the covers of a book. The book's male protagonist is lackluster--it's hard to see what makes him so alluring to women. However, the fascinating heroine more than compensates for this flaw. Denise Baudu is a departure from any other 19th century female character imaginable, a combination of Mary Pickford and a 20th century career woman. As a student of consumer culture, I also really enjoyed reading the fruits of Zola's research into Parisian department stores, advertising, etc.

"Au Bonheur des Dames" is about life in and around of the great department stores (grands magasins) that emerged in Paris in the mid-19th century. As the city modernized (built the famous sewers, cleared out the slums and constructed massive boulevards, etc.), new and imposing department stores revolutionized commerce. Au Bonheur des Dames, owned by the rapacious capitalist Octave Mouret, is one such store. The story of the store's growth and social impact is told through the experience of Denise Baudu, a girl from the country who comes to Paris with dreams of succeeding and supporting her younger brothers. She gets a job at Au Bonheur des Dames, and the store becomes the central factor in her life.

The book is not always a great read. The story is wildly over-written. It is melodramatic, cheesy, and even silly. The ending is predictable, and 3/4 of the way through, you know what's coming. But have to to slog through 100 more pages to get there. The passages describing the store's physical appearance and operations can be extremely tedious. Do we really need to know so much about construction practices, commercial accounting mechanisms, how sales are put on, and exactly what items are in stock and why?

Still, "Au Bonheur des Dames" does a fantastic job explicating the birth of the modern department which revolutionized shopping, and it really gives the reader a sense of the transformation wrought to Paris by Napoleon III and Georges Hausmann.

"The foundations of a person are not in matter but in spirit." Ralph Waldo Emerson

Au Bonheur des Dames is the eleventh novel in the Rougon-Macquart series by Émile Zola. Zola's classic centers around the bright lights of the massive department store (of which the novel is named) run by the charming, yet licentious Octave Mouret. In many ways Octave is almost the male equivalent of Zola's "Nana". The latter used the beauty of her sex to beguile men; while the former uses all the `material girl' treasures on sale at his colossal department store. It is this department store, 'Au Bonheur des Dames', which quickly becomes the center of Parisian society, especially for the upper class female population.

The story begins with the petite, soft-hearted, eighteen-year old Denise Baudu and her two younger brothers, Jean and Pepe entering into the big city for the first time. The trio have suddenly found themselves orphaned and in dire need of money. In order to support her two younger brothers, who in many ways are more like her children than siblings, Denise takes a lowly position as an assistant at the store. Despite the fact that she's an unworldly, poor country girl and to the rest of the staff comes across as weak and simple-minded, the real fact of the matter is - she's as tough as nails, very strong and very intelligent. She also is one of the most genuine, compassionate, and heroic belles I have ever been introduced to in literature. She is the total antithesis of Nana, and is without a doubt my favorite character in all of French literature. Definitely my favorite character EVER of Zola's!

Zola's classic is in many ways similar to that of a soap opera. He uses the department store as a new phenomenon to show how it helped reshape the business and social life of his country under the Second Empire (1851-1870). "Au Bonheur des Dames" is obviously a microcosm of French society, and when you read this novel you will easily see why. The beauty of his Rougon-Macquart series is that each story centers upon an important aspect of French society during that dynamic, distinctive period. While this may not be my favorite of his (it was # six for me thus far), it does possess quite a bit of charm and again, also introduces his most endearing character in Denise Baudu. Her Cinderella story is the main reason why I enjoyed this one so much, and why I recommend it.

On the minus side for me, as a few other reviewers aptly pointed out, was the fact that Zola really over does it at times with his lavish, overly decorative descriptions of the department store, its many luxurious displays, the day to day operations, etc... etc... At times, I was saying to myself "okay Emile, enough already! Get to the point my friend!" Also, the majority of the characters in this classic are extremely repugnant people with very few agreeable qualities. But that is not atypical when it comes to a Zola classic. For some reason, many of his characters are much seedier than those of his contemporaries (i.e. Flaubert, Balzac, Maupassant, et al...). Which is saying a lot, because none of them sugar-coated anything!

If you are a fan of French literature, love stories, and/or Horatio Alger works (i.e. rags to riches stories) than you probably will enjoy this one. I certainly did!

I've studied Spanish, French, German, and Portugese by CD, and in all cases was able to learn by playing the CDs while I drove, or by listening on my iPod while I did other things. With this set, however, that is not possible.

The CDs included have NO LESSONS on them. The lessons are in the included book. To use this series, one is intended to read the lesson in the book, then play the corresponding track on the CD to hear pronunciation, and then stop the CD and go back to reading the book. It requires an incredible amount of active participation, which is the opposite of why we buy language lessons on CD!

In the past I've used the Instant Immersion series and been very happy with it for Spanish, French, and German. I'm wishing I'd have bought it for Italian too, but I decided to try something different. I regret that choice, and I will most likely toss this product into the trash can and order the Instant Immersion Italian series.

I gave it two stars rather than one (or none, if that's possible) because while I find this to be in opposition to what I expect from a language learning system, I have to give credit for the amount of work involved in compiling such a product. For those with the time and ability to learn this way, the product seems adequate. Also, if nothing else, the box contains an English-Italian dictionary, in addition to the lesson book, so there's at least something useful included.

A very helpful course. I came across the book (without the CD) in a local library while I was trying to study Italian. The explanations in the book were far superior to what I had in my Rosetta Stone course. When I ordered the book from Amazon, it came with the CD, which was even more of a help. I have been totally satisfied with this book and CD. It is certainly worth the price. Frankly, I am more satisfied with this course than I have been with Rosetta Stone. Explanations are better and less confusing. For anyone trying to learn the language, a shortwave radio tuned to an Italian station helps a lot also!

Bob Morton

This has proven to be a most helpful resource for mastering colloquial Italian. I work as a priest in a parish with many elderly Italian parishiners, many of whom speak little or no English. What a blessing to have a language package that I can listen to in the car and read and review at home. It has helped me communicate with and understand Italians in a way no other audio course has.

I just migrated my version of "Complete Italian" from cassette to CD, so I pretty much knew what I was getting: the confidence that I would be able to "hear it right" and "say it right" when I return to Italy. I have tried several foreign language products and find that what works for me is one that begins right with saying the alphabet and the basic sounds that are the building blocks of spoken language. I also am more comfortable with the learning approach that requires me to concentrate on listening and seeing the written word at the same time.

Learning another language has never been easy for me but I have done well with this series. Travel is my motivator and I am content with acquiring enough phrases to be courteous, book rooms, order a wide variety of foods and trade a few basic observations on what I am finding to be of interest in the country. This book-audio set gives me a fine start. The spoken exercises are clearly presented and I can pick up details of ennunciation of natural conversation. There is a good amount of space for my repetition of the instructor's models. I don't expect mastery from the first go round: spending time with a language is the key to learning some of it for me. It is agreeable to spend that time with these exercises.

No one basic course can be "all things" in meeting an individual's language learning needs. I always supplement courses from this provider with more exercises (such as provided in the "...For Dummies" series and I get a Marlings Menu Master or a food dictionary and work out the messages I might want to communicate in advance of leaving. But the whole process begins with a Living Language Product such as this one.

Language learning from zero has never been easy. i am about finish this basic pack. without any knowledge of Italian before, i can pickup some paragraphs in Bell' Italia (a magazine can be found at some newsstands) with some help from the included dictionary.

this set is not really for driving-learning. because the CD has no English. for me, who had no idea of Italian before, the learning is not piece of cake. There is no rush hour killing time stuff works for me. By putting effort seriously on this book about 30 minutes everyday, I saw the result at the end of this book. So, I think if you seriously want to learn Italian, this is a great start kit. If throwing out couple of sentences in exotic flavor from time to time is your goal, go for those CD only packages.

Max makes his move in this installment of the series...but will it lead anywhere? Vanessa continues on her quest, but is unsuccessful...Lavinia parades her wedding dress & extraordinary veil, to Liz's dismay, and everyone awakes the next day to find the veil slashed and ruined! Elizabeth is accused, but will someone save her before she is deported? The superficial sister Sarah has her sights set on another dog, classmate William. The book moves slower than previous books.

Downstairs, Upstairs was interesting, and well written. I liked it a lot. It was worth buying, if you are a fan of Sweet Valley, but particularly of Elizabeth. I prefer the Elizabeth series to the SVH, and I liked this book. It has an interesting plot and is worth the money.

I really like this Elizabeth series. I read the regular Sweet Valley High for a long time, then the spin offs Senior Year and Sweet Valley Junior High. I started reading this series and now I am hooked. In one day I bought #3,4,5,6. I'm pretty sure that this is #4.

The story revolves around Elizabeth Wakefield who moved to London after a big fight with her twin sister Jessica and her parents. Elizabeths hopes of attending the University of London on the full scholarship were dashed when she learned that she had not responded to the deadline on time. By chance Elizabeth is hired as a scullery maid for the Earl of Pennington and falls
in love with his son Max. But Max is getting married to the horrible Lavinia in two months, and as a royal he would never be allowed to date a commoner, Elizabeth. The books just follow each other as this storyline keeps going.

Really entertaining books for light reading, I recommend them to girls ages 13-16.

Ok, first of all I would like to say that this book was just a bit like the others so far. Where Vanessa is still continuing looking for proof that she is actually the earl's daughter, while Elizabeth & Max still has eyes for eachother never wanting to look away from one another, and Sarah who is still having little puppy loves, though she is no longing with Nick whom she found out what his REAL personality realy is like. She now has eyes on William,a boy that also attends her school. The only realy big event that happened in here was where Max could no longer take it and had the biggest urge to kiss Elizabeth. She knew it was wrong herself to wanna do the same, but in the end she gave in. They had the most passionate, dreamy kiss. But it cut short when they heard an angry voice coming near which was Lavinia's, the fincee of Max. So this was a good book but just a bit slow. Hopefully it will speed up a bit.

This book is a fast read. It is enjoyable, but superficially so. Max finally succumbs and kisses Elizabeth. However Sarah, the spoiled brat, hates Elizabeth for spying on her and conspires with that annoying twit Victoria, against Liz. Liz is forced to spy by the Lord. (She is only the scullery maid with no other home or connections.) I like James Leer and Vanessa. They interact finally and that was the best part of the novel. Max is torn between the traditional conflict: duty and desire. Max is getting annoying. Make up your mind already!! While his desire is whetted by the kiss, duty still overrides and he is still going to marry Lavinia, who is shown even more to be a big, big , witch. (please think of the other rhyming and alliterative word.) These books are like I said, easy and fast, and superficially enjoyable.

Every time we go to France, I pull out this book and read about the flea markets in the area or city we will be visiting. It has been a kick to visit flea markets here and there in our travels in France. Albeit it's quite dated now, but I still found it amazingly accurate on a trip to Brittany in June 2007. I knew what days to look for markets in what towns. I'd love to see another addition and like the idea of photos or drawings in the first section of the book where she writes about the kinds of items to look for.

Thank you, Sandy, for this great book! Just returned from Paris where 3 other antique dealers and I visited all the markets listed for Paris that were available in November. The information was accurate and honest and the directions very complete. This is a great time saver for serious shoppers like we are and enabled us to maximize our limited time in Paris. We plan to use the other sections of the book on a future trip (soon we hope!) and recommend it to others we discover that are planning a shopping trip in France. Well worth the modest price!

I roadtested this book on a recent trip to Provence and it was just what I needed. Not only did it tell me about the markets and their wares, but it also directed me to the best meal of my trip. The other big plus was useful French phrases for transactions with vendors who had little English.

This book gives prices in FF (French Francs). France changed from Francs to Euros in 2000. Does that give you a hint of how out-dated this book is? Granted, a lot of the information will still be valid, but much will not; needs another edition with a serious update. Also, could use lots of photos or drawings to illustrate the points she's making (for examples, Price discusses various types of French pottery; it would be nice to see what she's talking about)
This is probably a better book for armchair travel than for actually guiding you through French flea markets. Good luck!

Would never sell this book! Would never loan this book! But you can come to my house and look at it. Every bit of information (and there is a lot) is absolutely accurate!
My friend Joann and I had planned two weeks in Paris, just for Flea Markets, when my "brilliant" friend Annie in California sent me this book. I can't image my "hunt" without it. It made preparing for the trip a blast and the actual running around a breeze. Thank you Sandy. I would buy anything that you wrote. To the rest of you: Don't even think about it. Just buy the book and hop on a plane. Take along Sandy's advice and extra suitcases!

This is an excellent book especially for a subject as dry as verbs conjugation. The tapes are excellent and cover all the material included in the lessons. It is a useful book for both beginners and advanced learners.

I like these tapes! I have tried some other tape courses, and finally find these tapes which truly worth with their prices! I am always poor in listening, so these tapes give me a good opportunity to practise. These tapes combine verb conjugations with listening and oral skills; therefore, you don't only get verb skills improved, but also oral skills brushed up. As you know, speaking and writing are completely two different things. I studied English and Spanish before, and made terrible mistakes of concentrating too much on written but forgetting spoken. So these tapes give me a good start to listen to what native speaker actually speak in the conversation.

Another thing I like these tapes was that the conversation part is suitable for intermediate level of students: not too fast and not too slow. The dialogues really made a good introduction to French conversations.

I did not give 5 stars because first, there are few faults between the book and the tapes. Sometimes the dialogues in the book do not completely match with those on the tapes. The second thing is that I feel the author should make more exercises on the tape for us to practise verb conjugations, a great part contributing to conversational fluency. The third thing is that the pause should be placed between the English translations and the French sentences, not after the English and the French sentences speaking right one after the other.

Anyway, these tapes are great bargin! The most important part of the language is to speak and listen, and these tapes does both! As I have tried some other tapes before, they are either not satisfactorily made, or does not worth their prices.

In a world of very expensive French audio and book courses, for example Pimsleur French at over $200.00 a section, almost $700.00 or more for the entire course, and a huge number of mid priced sets, many of them excellent, the Living Language French Verbs Skill Builder is absolutely the best $25.00 you will ever spend on ANY French learning tool.

It covers all essential topics, has a friendly conversational style, using many of the same voice actors as Pimsleur and Barron's courses, and employs realistic real world statements and dialogs to highlight and explain the use of verbs in ALL tenses. The only drawback is that it is still on cassette tape, not CD Audio, but hopefully Living Language will remedy this soon.

If you're beginning with French this is an invaluable asset, much more realistically useable than the massive "every French verb on earth" books of conjugation tables. If you already have some basic French skills you could use this set alone to significantly improve your speaking and conversational skills.

Having tried several other methods, I found this course the absolute best for reviewing French verb forms in a non-boring fashion. The tapes are well-organized and intelligently done. They do move on at a swift pace but that is exactly what one needs to brush up on a prior knowledge of any language. Normally I resist hearing anything but the foreign language on an audiotape course (the constant interruptions into English usually tend to confuse more than they clarify). In this case, case, however, the English is non-intrusive and allows one to use the tapes without necessarily consulting the written guide. I use it while I'm cleaning thehouse, driving, or doing some mundane chore. Highly recommended. Hope they create a CD version of these tapes soon. (For a more sit-down mode of learning, check out the spectacularly interesting, interactive Learn French Now! software available for both Macs and PCs. Innovative and intelligently-done software that is also fun- in short, a great companion to this series.)

I just purchased this set - 4 audiotapes and a book. This set is not good for a beginner, but very good if you already know some French. I did two years in college a while back and now I'm prepping for my first trip to France. I like these tapes a lot. They are professionally narrated with very clear, distinctive speech and excellent sound quality. The pace is very good with appropriate pauses for the listener to repeat. Although the focus is on verb usage and conjugation, they throw in lots of good vocab words.

I love this book. It's taken me from Ireland to France, Belgium, England, Wales, the Neathelands and countries in-between. It's tiny and is filled with helpful phrases in an easy-to-read format. Also, it's very durable. I love all Lonely Planet books!

Helpful tip: I always cover my phrasebooks with a plain cover to avoid standing out as a tourist.

An excellent quick reference for all your travel language necessities in Europe. And it's a handy little size too.

If you plan to travel all over Europe, this book may get you through and save the time and trouble of carrying a different phrasebook for each country. It is small, just slightly larger than the average palm and full of basic phrases.
It doesn't cover every language but DOES include Basque, Catalan, Welsh, Spanish, Turkish, Italian, Dutch, French, German and a wealth of others.
WHat I especially liked:
1. The tips on how to break the ice in each country and join in conversations
2.Menu decoders and suggestions for each country
3.Essential words to get you through transportation checkpoints and on your way
4. Some of the basic sports and festivals in each country.
5. Written FOR the traveler with a strong emphasis on the most essential situations when a phrasebook might be needed.

This book has several advantages over other phrasebooks:
* Its got most of Europe (except Eastern) covered, including Irish!
* It is small - about the size of two decks of cards.
* It has the english phrase, the phrase in the translated language and then in blue how you actually pronounce the phrase. The pronunciations are spot on - the best thing about this book.
* It has phrases on absolutely everything - I even got to use my Greek phrase for "I would not like it extracted please" when I spoke to a greek student at the Oktoberfest who was studying dentistry. Everything's covered: getting on buses, going to the laundromat, getting directions, etc. About 20 pages on each language with everything that you will need to get by for a while.
* It's cheap and all in one book.
* A must have for anybody going to Europe who doesn't speak all their languages - I think that's everyone.

it is great to see the smaller langauges of Europe in this guide!!

WE DO EXIST REMEMBER!!

Irish, Scots Gaelic, Welsh, Basque and Catalan take their positions as European languages of note!

All BRITISH and SPANISH people should know some words in THEIR lesser used languages! Otherwise they are not really British/Spanish!!!