Paris

If you love to read those books on stars who looked beautiful and charming on the outside and brutal alcoholics behind closed doors, you will be sorely disappointed by Audrey Hepburn. Barry Paris's book on the Imph is just astonishing. It begins with her troubled childhood, a father who abandoned her and the World War II stories of her and her home country are tear-jerking. Then her sudden rise to success was only off-set by a set of miscarriages and missed-marriages. Yet her charm and elegance shown through it all. The part that really makes an impact is that last chapters of Hepburns life. Paris's coverage of Hepburn's travels with UNICEF. It was riveting to find out how committed she was to her cause, the extents she would go to help the children, even to her dying days. Barry Paris did an excellent job in collecting facts, interviews, and side stories to make this the best Hepburn book yet.

This is such a tremendous book. Packed with substantial detail...Barry Paris has done his homework. This is the only biography of Audrey Hepburn I've read that feels complete, that has not trivialized or sanitized her life. I left the book feeling as if I'd known her as a person rather than a movie star.

A biographer shouldn't lower your opinion of the person they're writing about (as if you could ever
have a low opinion of Audrey Hepburn!) and Barry Paris certainly does a brilliant job of depicting
Audrey's life from age 15 until her death (age 64). The author blends his words so you don't loose
interest even once. The book has lots of quotes, from and about Audrey, and several pictures of
her throughout her life. There isn't a down side to this book, except for a few subjects where the author
should have elaborated on a bit more than he did. You can clearly see that Audrey was a truly
wonderful person, a real lady. After you read about what a hard childhood she had, in the middle
of WW2 and the miscarriages she suffered and basically being deprived of love from her parents,
it is amazing that she was still such a beautiful person, a beautiful soul. She traveled to countries to
help dying people and did things that few other people would do...she seems to have been an
angel, and certainly was to several people. This is a book that you don't need to read before buying, it's wonderful.

If Hitler had his way, there would be no Notre Dame, none of Paris' beautiful bridges, no Eiffel Tower. The Allies didn't stop him, a brave German general did. At a tremendous personal risk, he resolved not to be the man to destroy the most beautiful city in the world.

The story is told with the in-your-face realism of two journalists. Yet it's full of humor and even downright silliness. Would-be soldier Enrnest Hemingway captured a German soldier and relieved him of his pants. Why? He figured no man would escape half-naked. He was right.

This isn't about troop movements, it's about real people risking their lives (and those of their families) to liberate Paris. After all, Eisenhower didn't think he had enough fuel or time to fight a mini-war for Paris. He desperately needed to push east to Germany.

So how did it all happen? Read the book, in Paris if you can, but whever you can find a good lamp. Is Paris Burning? will keep you up late at night.

Puts flesh on the bones of a remarkable group, including Generals Patton, Bradley, Eisenhower and Von Coltitz, writers Hemingway and Sartre, and political figures Roosevelt, Hitler and DeGaulle. Numerous anecdotes from the occupation and liberation brings history to life. Tales of moonlit parachute drops, secret codes and Molotov cocktails remain with the reader, long after the book is completed. Like the last Metro train before curfew for Parisians under Nazi rule, this book is not be missed.

No novel could have been more exciting than this detailed story of the birth of Isreal and the early struggles. This book is written with all the suspense and excitement of a novel but what sets it aside is that it is all factual.

One of my favorite books!

I had been hearing rave reviews about the play "Anne Frank and me" and I was excited to have a chance to read the novel version. I was not disappointed. It was the most witty, intelligent, honest Young Adult novel I have read in a very long time, if not the ever. Cherie and Jeff have done a fantastic job not only conveying the angst teen girls all over the world go through on a daily basis (unrequited love, the mind-numbing spirit destroying hell of high school, not being able to connect with your parents) but they were able to deal with one of the most serious subjects in history--the Holocaust. I feel that this book should be put on to the reading lists of schools all over America--it really brought the horrors of an old historical event that isn't extremely relevant to a middle-class Protestant young adult to life. Buy this book--you won't regret it!

The authors of ANNE FRANK AND ME have accomplished a phenomenal task. They have written a Holocaust novel that is deeply moving without being a depressing read. Like THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK itself, the ultimate message of Bennett & Gottesfeld's book is one of hope. Both books demonstrate that even in the midst of the most horrendous violations of human rights, good people still exist who can make a difference. Without trivializing the historical tragedy, both books paint three-dimensional portraits of real teenagers, just as concerned with fashion and dating as they are with whether they will live or die. This juxtaposition is refreshingly realistic. Nicole Burns is an average teenager, at times intolerant, boy-crazy, and uninterested in schoolwork. She, like most of the characters in this book, is not 100% good nor 100% evil. In a misguided effort to be politically correct, some authors of historical fiction make their characters sinners or saints, leaving the reader with the impression that she could never relate to these larger-than-life people. But teens will identify with Nicole. They will realize that the Holocaust happened to ordinary people like themselves, and that it could happen again. This story will hook even reluctant readers with its humor and up-to-date setting, including Nicole's own website. Nicole's time-travel to Paris in 1942 is believably handled. Events become gradually more intense, so that by the time Nicole is in real danger, readers who would not normally choose a "serious," "educational" book will keep reading to find out what happens next. You will cry. You will also smile. You will definitely think and learn. What more could you ask from a book?

This book brought the Holocaust into a new light. I am one-half Jewish, and have never really identified with my faith. (Or any faith) But this book tells of the heartache of the Jews during the late 1930s and early to middle 1940s. It is a must-read.

I'm 32 years old and I LOVE Eloise - she is an absolutely delightful character! I have bought several of the Eloise books for my 5 year old daughter and she just loves Eloise as well. How fun and inspiring is it for a little girl to read about a character as whimsical and independent as Eloise?

The illustrations in this book are fantastic and really bring Paris to life for children. I have read this book at least 100 times to my daughter, and each time I enjoy it more. My daughter now wants a champagne cork necklace just like Eloise...thanks Kay Thompson for laughs you have allowed my daughter and me to share!

I read Eloise (at the Plaza) and Eloise in Paris - all 'very much' Kay. I loved that woman - a very good friend of my mom's. I worked with/for her when (as a teenager) I did her musical arrangements and orchestrations for her fabulous act with The Williams Brothers - which opened in Vegas and played all over the world.

She was one of a kind (you can see her in Funny Face) brilliant musical/vocal arranger herself, world traveler, racounter, incredible lady. I've bumper into her in Rome, Paris, London, New York, LA and was terribly saddened by her death (even though she was painfully painfully thin her whole life). She was one of the great women in the history of show biz. The Eloise books are thrilling to say the least and I continually laugh every time I pick one up even after I've gone through them 100 times. I'm ordering them once again as I left mine in London and MUST have them once again. Buddy Bregman

Eloise's First trip to Paris, is unforgetable.
With her Nanny (Nanny), Turtle (Skiperdee), and her Dog (Weenie)...It's a Treasure. It's a keeper. It's great. A+

Of the three map guides I have used to navigate Paris -- the other 2 being PARIS PRATIQUE PAR ARRONDISSEMENT and the little Blue Michelin map guide -- Middleditch's is by far the most beautiful. Metro stops, arrondissements, tourist sights are included; the maps are large and bright; the book is large, but not too large; and yet...

To me, the most important thing a map guide could do is get me from Point A to Point B without too much time-wasting confusion in between. Where all the map guides fail is by not including good bus maps. The Metro is great, but you see only the dark underside of Paris; whereas a trip along Bus #69 will take you from the Eiffel Tower past the Louvre and Hotel de Ville through the Marais and Menilmontant to the Pere Lachaise Cemetery. A comparable trip along the same route underground would involve one more more of the dread "correspondances," which are underground commuter rat races up and down stairs, ramps, and escalators to distant transfer points.

This guide actually tries to suggest the different bus routes by including widely dispersed little red numbers which are impossible to follow closely. If you really have to use the bus, you'd have to print the "plans de quartier" and bus routes from the RATP's website .

We had a whole sheaf of these route and quartier maps with us, so we enjoyed Paris to the utmost, taking the Metro only on Sunday and evenings, when the bus service winds down.

One additional gripe: It would not have been terribly difficult to include taxi stations, as the Michelin maps do.

Despite my criticisms above, the mapguide is excellent, but not that much better than the other two I mentioned. And I realize it would be much more difficult to do justice to bus routes (as they are so changeable), but the opportunity is there to make it a great guide.

If you ever expect to find that little bistro on Pas. de Clery, or a park on R. du Fouarre, you'll need a detailed map. This is it. This has the stuff that is not on the other tourist maps.

There's a key map (a city map with a numbered grid showing the page numbers of the detail maps that follow for each section of the city). And there's a complete street index.

The 29 detailed city maps are divided into two-page spreads. They're labeled with sights, Metro stops, and establishments.

The bus routes are shaded gray, and the bus numbers are printed in red alongside the streets. I spent some time in Paris and came to love commuting by bus on clear days. If you plan to try it, leave some extra time to figure it all out, it's worth the effort. You'll need more info than is provided here. A current bus map would be a big help in planning your day trips, ...

Metro stops are marked on the street maps, but the metro routes are not shown. There's a small metro map on pages 2-3, followed by some very condensed practical information for tourists. (If you need guidebook information, don't rely solely on this book, get a Michelin.)

The detail maps leave out substantial parts of the 12th, 13th, 15th, 18th and 20th arrondissements. If you want something comprehensive, though not as user-friendly, look for "Paris par Arrondissement - Plan Net" by Editions Ponchet. That guide also has detailed bus routes.

I prefer the book map format over fold-out maps, because it gives me a detailed map, but I don't have to fight with it to get it folded and back into my pocket. Ironically, I did end up folding this book to get it into my back pocket. I wish the form factor were slightly narrower.

Bon Voyage!

To be honest, we picked up a Metro (subway) map and a free city map and used those more than we used this one. It was just one more book to carry along with us. The size is handy and the maps are very detailed....when we got lost, we did use this map book to find our way to where we needed to be. I can say that I recommend it if you are not an experienced traveler or if you plan to do a lot of exploring on foot.

I missed the Madeline books completely when I was a child, so my daughter and I discovered them together. It's an education seeing Madeline through her eyes. In Madeline, my daughter, who is somewhat shy and leery of new experiences, has a heroine who is smart, spunky, and completely in control of every situation.

I like Madeline the character a lot more than I like the books. I've found that very few writers can write wonderful verse, and I don't include Bemelmans in that august company. Some of his rhymes flow nicely together, such as the opening lines of the first book:

In an old house in Paris that was covered with vines lived twelve little girls in two straight lines. Some of his rhymes are jarring:

and soon after Dr. Cohn came, he rushed out to the phone, and he dialed : DANton-ten-six --

'Nurse,' he said, 'it's an appendix!' Everybody had to cry --

not a single eye was dry. . . . Madeline woke up two hours

later, in a room with flowers.

Still, the story isn't bad. A brave little girl is rushed to the hospital, has her appendix out, then shows off her scar. She makes it so exciting that all the other girls want their appendix out, too. Even my daughter wanted to have an appendix scar, until I explained just what that would entail.

As a child, some of my favorite books were the Madeline stories. This is the first in the series, and it sets a wonderful tone. The illustrations are wonderful, and it's fun to see illustrations of actual Parisian landmarks such as the Opera, Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame and Tulleries. The story is fun, fast and catchy, and I used to wish that I was one of the little girls standing amongst the two straight lines lead by Miss Clavel.

This book is not just for little girls. Boys can enjoy the story as well.

Ever since I was old enough to read I've loved Madeline! I remember going to the library and checking out this book and all the other ones in the series (Madeline and the bad hat, Madeline to the rescue...) I was always disappointed that they were checked out. I am 21 years old now and still have an infactuation with Madeline! She is a great role model for children of all ages and the stories and lessons learned from them stick with you!

I'd recommend this book for new mothers and small children alike!

Our two little girls, three and two years old, LOVE Madeline. Daddy reads them one story each night -- they always get to pick which. For Christmas they got two new books which are still almost unread, since every night they want Madeline! The stories are exciting, but gentle and sweet; they are moral but not preachy. And the poetry is wonderful! Also the stories are not too long for a tired parent's voice at bedtime. But with only two little ones of my own, I wonder how DOES Miss Clavel keep TWELVE little girls in two straight lines?

My daughter had seen a couple of Madeline videos (including Madeline's Resuce) and really enjoyed them, so I decided to purchase this book. Well, after only having it for a week and a half, she is pulling it off her bookshelf and asking me to read it to her. The sing-song quality of the prose has her "reading" along with me as best she can already.

These stories can be understood by toddlers even at this early age, although the "recommended" age for this book is older.

A great book and a good deal - worth the price.

I originally bought this book for my daughter so she could get a book of her own when the book delivery arrived in the mail.
There are 6 stories - poetic, simple, and time tested.
My daughter is a great reader now, and I attribute this book as one of those that sparked her interest in reading.

I was so impressed with this cookbook. First, I adore Paris and love the art of French cooking. I learned French style cooking years ago and I love to watch how my French friends put together a seemingly simple meal that turns out so impressively. And the black-and-white photos of Paris that illustrate the book are great reminders of visits past.

The key to these seemingly simple recipes in "The Paris Cookbook" is good ingredients, a knack for combination, some fundamental traditional ideas, and a passion for excellence. For example, some of the most interesting recipes to me were for peasant cooking from Provence. There was a soup of spelt (a wheat-like grain with many healthful properties.) It was combined with barley and the green French de Puy lentils to make a Mediterranean-style meal-in-a-pot soup. The use of spelt is more common in Germany --however the Provencal use it as one would use rice, in risottos or as here, in a soup. There is also a recipe for a simple version of bouillabaise fish soup that I really want to try.

The other recipe that got me excited was for an ordinary gazpacho cold tomato soup but...with a savory mustard ice cream as a garnish. Now THERE'S an interesting idea. If you have ever had a blob of cream in a tomato-based soup, you know how nicely cream blends and smooths the flavor of the acid fruit. But to add the cream in the form of ice cream, but unsweetened and with a spicy mustard, now that is exciting! I will be making that for my next summer dinner party. I also got the idea to modify the recipe and make wasabi green tea ice cream (wasabi is the green Japanese mustard you get with sushi.) I can pair that with a cold cucumber-crab soup.

That's what I adore about this cookbook. Not only great recipes, but they are in essence, fundamental and can be adapted with your own creative ideas.

The author also includes information about each restaurant where she obtained the recipes--chef, address, notes. So if you go to Paris, you essentially have quite a good restaurant guide.

The only caveat about this cookbook is that to make any of these recipes, you must get top-quality ingredients, as they are the backbone of each dish. This means a trek to the farmer's market, to the specialty shop, the farm, your backyard garden, the dairy or mail-order as many grocery store items will just not measure up. I can tell you from experience that the quality of the ingredients is paramount to success, and grocery store cream and butter in most of the US just can't do the job. And don't get me started on the vegetables.

Nobody has a finger on French cooking like Patricia Wells and certainly nobody has the pulse on the Parisian food story like Madame Wells. She has been at the epicenter of the Parsian restaurant scene and has incredible access to the powers that be. Patricia Wells not only is a superb journalist but her taste in food is au courant. She has gathered recipes that not only enliven the palate but also are very practical. The recipes are uncomplicated and have easily obtainable ingredients. The book has the flavor of Paris - one can almost be there and smell the glorious aromas. This is not a coffee table type cookbook. It is a black and white themed portrait from its blurred image of the Eiffel Tower to the intimate photographs around and inside the greatest food scene in the world.

This recent book by Patricia Wells is a selection of the author's favorite recipes from the restaurants, Boulangerie, and patisseries in Paris. In a sense, it broadens her focus of the book 'Simply French' from the single restaurant of Joel Robuchon to look at many leading Parisian establishments. While being broader, it is also just a bit less deep in it's exploration of complicated recipes, as very few in this book match the complexity of the typical recipe in 'Simply French'.

I would place this book as my third or fourth French cookbook after Julia Child's 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking', Richard Olney's 'Simple French Food', and Madeline Kamman's 'The New Making of a Cook'. While these are some of the best texts on the principles and techniques of French cooking, this book by Wells is real world application of the principles. As it looks at the real world, it offers the reader some pretty unusual dishes in giving us a variety you may not find in a single restaurant cookbook, even one so good as the recent 'Balthazar Cookbook' from the chefs at the New York restaurant of the same name.

While this book is not a teaching book, it is still true to the style of cooking you will find in Paris and, as such, it is primarily a book for the gourmet, the entertainer, the traveler to Paris, and the wine lover. Like 'Simply French', the book gives wine suggestions for all savory courses. These wine suggestions are a bit more generic than those in 'Simply French', so it will be easier to find something to match, even in the oenologically backward state of Pennsylvania.

Before you get the impression that none of the recipes in this book have any general currency for the average cook, I must say that many are really very easy, especially the salad, vegetable, and soup recipes. Even some meat recipes are fairly simple, such as the braised lamb shank recipe Wells did on 'Emeril Live' when she made a promotional appearance after the book first came out. Everyone does braised lamb shanks, but Wells does it just a little differently, and offers some good suggestions on choosing the best cuts. But, there are some real novelties, such as the Arpege Eggs with Maple Syrup. I will be content to simply read about these dishes.

The organization of recipes is classic, following almost exactly the same chapter headings as in 'Simply French'. These are:

Appetizers, Starters, and First Courses
Salads
Breads
Vegetables
Potatoes
Pasta, Rice, Beans, and Grains
Soups
Fish and Shellfish
Poultry
Meats
Desserts
The Pantry

The first two chapters plus the third and fourth are real gems. At the $30 list price of this book, they are worth the price of admission. The Breads chapter is a little teaser with only six recipes, each fairly complicated, but very rewarding. Just enough to whet your appetite for a book by a bread heavyweight such as Nancy Silverton or Peter Reinhart. The chapters on protein dishes are surprisingly simple. They are certainly less complicated than the soups and desserts. The desserts chapter is quite large, with many recipes for apples, cherries, and ice cream. The Pantry chapter gives all the expected recipes for vinaigrettes, mayonnaise, spice mixes, stocks, and sauces. This is somewhat better than average.

In spite of the utility of cookbooks that organize by menu for occasions and themes, this is still my favorite organization for a cookbook covering many types of dishes. One entertains once a month, maybe. One cooks for your small family in a single household every day. This is better for the latter situation.

I am not a fan of splashy color photography in cookbooks. When it is there, I rarely look at it except to judge its quality for a review. To my mind, the photography in this book is just right. Its occasional black and white pictures of people and places have informative captions and decorate the book with views of Paris and its people.

If you are traveling to Paris or love French food or need new recipes for entertaining with a lot of ta-da, this is the book for you. Be aware, however, that basic cooking skills and a well-equipped kitchen are a must in order to accomplish many of the recipes in this book.

You may also find yourself developing irrational urges to visit your favorite travel web site for plane tickets to Paris. Highly recommended.

NEW YOUR TIMES SUNDAY BOOK REVIEW JUNE 6, 1999

The new rush-to-the-stoves book is Parisian Home Cooking: Conversations, Recipes and Tips From the Cooks and Food Merchants of Paris......a collection of recipes lovingly and cannily collected from Parisians young and old-- a concierge, a hip friend and his mother, a fellow American in Paris, the butcher at the street market and many other garrulous vendors. Roberts, a longtime Los Angeles restaurant chef and (with Barbara Kafka) one of the country's few truly original thinkers about cooking, returned to Paris 20 years after receiving his culinary schooling there, armed with a student's enthusiasm, an anthropologist's curiosity, a born schmoozer's way of eliciting cooking secrets and a sensational sense of taste. He rediscovers techniques born of Parisian practicality in the face of minimal burners and unreliable ovens: duck cooked and defatted in a pressure cooker before being finished in the oven, chicken roasted in a closely covered casserole, steak seared in a cast-iron skillet over high heat. Techniques and recipes like this will make cooks who cut their teeth on Julia Child and then moved on to Italy fall in love with French cooking all over again.

Little needs to be said about this book! It is the best cookbook I have ever owned. It is used weekly in our home. Recipes are simple, quick and absolutely delightful. You don't need any other French cookbook, although Parisian Home Cooking will only wet your appetite for more and more of this wonderful genre of food! An absolute must! Michael put me on the list for your next book!!!

I am very interested in french culture - in particular, the culture of food! I have other french cookbooks, but this one is by far the most used. Every single recipe I have cooked from this book has turned out beautifully. My family has especially enjoyed the scallop recipes and the bean soup recipe. I am very pleased with this book. I love the stories of french life and the pictures of the cooks in their kitchens. Hard to believe that so many treats could emerge from such tiny and bare kitchens. Bon appetit!

Georges Perec loved language, and it shows. _Life_ is clearly a labor of love. There are times when maybe the descriptions ramble, and you may well find yourself into the fifth page of a description of some piece of furniture, but if you don't keep track, you'll never notice. This is a difficult book to describe simply because it is so dense. At one level, it's a logic game; at another, it's an exercise in linguistics; at another, it's simply poetry. The translator, too, deserves kudos. Although I haven't read the original, the translation, I suspect, has remained faithful to the spirit of the book. Please read this book.

I just wanted to move into this apartment complex here at Amazon and put my name on the list of roommates who love this book. I finished the book today and find myself exhilerated at it's genius. Perec, along with Queneau and Calvino, prove that Oulipo isn't just a gimmick but a viable workshop in which great art can be produced that is both equally humorous and emotionally moving. Perec's prose is rich. There's more than enough humor and pathos in the book for anyone who's willing to carefully read a book that's not just rushing to tell a story, but to occupy it with some beautiful philosophy. It's as great as anything else I've read, including Faulkner, Joyce, Calvino, Balzac, etc. Top-drawer!

Perec would properly be regarded as an experimentalist and this novel, like his others, was written under self-imposed constraints.
The novel takes as its plan a block of flats in a Parisian suburb, a 10 x 10 grid, over which the narrator must proceed by way of the moves of the Knight in chess, never landing on the same flat twice(this, like other formalities, were allowed to be bent but let's not get too complicated...) with a whole system for information, knowledge and learning to be allocated to each chapter.
'So far, so what' might be the natural response to this were it not for the majesty of the finished novel.
Read in translation the writing is formal yet intimate and seems to proceed at its own leisurely pace as it moves through the block of flats, through life. Numerous 'Tales' are recounted as the novel progresses, each rich in feeling and poignancy though sometimes disturbing, the key of which, indeed the key to the novel, is 'The Tale of the Man who painted watercolours and had puzzles made out of them'. To go into detail would spoil the effect for other readers but this is about life, about a plan for life and ultimately a metaphor for life. And the making of this book.
I have to confess to a love for French literature generally. It seems possible to trace an organic progression and tradition (the blanket phrase that readily comes to mind is 'intellectual pessimism'...)through its history which is then disrupted every once in a while by an individual who rebels against that tradition (Rimbaud) or subverts it (Mallarme or Aragon). Perec, arguably, both is and is not of this tradition.
He is however, in the wider tradition of great literature. And seems to recognise this. 'Life...' is crammed with literary puns ( an advertisement in a shop for 'Souvenirs' by Madeleine Proust anyone...) and what Perec refers to as 'unacknowledged quotations'. Which is how the novel manages to begin exactly where 'Ulysses' ends (with the symbolic word 'Yes'...) and how 'The Tale of the Acrobat who did not want to get off his trapeze ever again' manages to have its origins in Kafka's short story 'First Sorrow'. And so on...Perec provides a list of authors used at the end.
And an Index of the individual stories. Which is really what you must read this for. For the stories. Because they will excite, depress, frustrate and elate. Because Perec was not kidding with that title. All of life is here. In all of its wonder and sadness. It is not a 'User's Manual' in that it gives pat answers to complex problems, what it does do is far more difficult. And brave. It suggests over and over why life is worth living and how beauty and wonder surround not only the everyday but the tragic too.
Yes, it really is that good...