Paris

On reading the first chapter of the 450 page novel, "$ Fundamentalist Terror Revolts" by Mary Braveheart, I at first found it difficult getting into the unique style. I haven't come across anything quite like it. I normally read Douglas Adams, "Hitch Hikers Guide to Galaxy" and "Lord of the Rings" type books. I picked it up and found it immediately readable. I still couldn't put it down despite all the distractions, till I had finished it. I was really surprised that I got into the story, the style and the theme so easily. The style is very descriptive and interesting. There is much carefully engineered satire and intense metaphor hidden within the easily read plot.
I loved the premise of the story and the main character and heroine Rosie McDonald, code named 121. She's descended from the Celtic and Cherokee chieftains and goes to the Middle East to stop the terrorists getting control of the oil and nuclear weapons.
The book is so full of details about the Middle East that it has to be based on the author's experiences there. I noted that it was inspired by the murders of Princess Diana and an Australian nurse in Saudi, by the Middle East Crisis, the Gulf war, the Al Khobar bombing and other similar terrorist atrocities. The plot revolves around international terrorism, action, sex, murder, royalty, religion, deceit and the fight for the control of oil and nuclear weapons. The heroine's struggle is a crusade of good over evil, of woman over man, of Christianity over Islam, paganism against eco-terrorism.
For me the book ranks with George Orwell's "Animal Farm" or Swift's "Gulliver's Travels." The poetry quotations are like a potted history of English literature and fit in well with the story line. The heroine's emblem and that of the Virgin Mary and of New York City is the rose. The path of its cultivation is followed in poetic and prophetic fashion. The story is permeated with the branches, twigs and thorns of the flower traced through early human history growing into today's civilisation. The book made me think about our own values, our own ideas, our own liberty and freedom of expression and where we're actually coming from and whether liberal values can be applied to the world of international terrorism.
It's realistically scary and after all that's happened recently it is "of the moment" type of book - a real eye opener and should be read by all those women thinking of converting to Islam and those affected by terrorism in all its guises.
The book has deep underlying issues that are carefully concealed in a well-written interesting story line and plot. It leaves a lasting optimistic impression and is easily read.
I was touched that the book was dedicated to the victims and families of terrorist atrocities and to the disinherited native peoples of the world, and to some extent foretells what the terrorist mind- set is capable of.
I'm still left wondering who the author really is and would love to meet her.
I'm now reading it again just in case I missed anything. I came to realise only at the end what the significance of the $ sign was and what the curse of the desert rose really is. I'll leave other readers to make their own discoveries, to walk their own path, to begin their own adventure. A novel not to be overlooked by those with rose coloured spectacles or to put it another way a rose by any other name still smells sweet.

A fascinating account of the world of heroic Metis leader Gabriel Dumont. If you are interested in the Red River area, get this book!

Gertrude Stein called them the "Lost Generation," this motley amalgamation of talented and not-so-talented would-be (in the early 1920s) writers and expatriates. Stein was one, Natalie Clifford Barney, Sylvia Beach were others - all profiled in GENIUSES TOGETHER.

The main narrative takes place between 1921 and 1928, the dates chosen because they encompass the years Hemingway and his associates invaded Montparnasse and created what Noel Coward called "a marvelous party."

It's quite a story, this picture of the romantic years (did they really look that way at the time?) of to-be literary giants: Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Joyce, Pound. They shared money, books, lovers, living quarters. They careened from love to scandal and back again. They were individualists, scoundrels, idealists, one and all.

Christmas 1931: Sylvia Beach (of the Shakespeare and Company bookstore on the Left Bank) noticed a young man, whom she described as "a tall, dark young fellow with a small mustache" glancing through the magazines. She began to talk to him, discovered that he had no money for a lender's card, so she offered him a card, saying he could pay the deposit when he liked.

"It was only now that she discovered that he had a letter of introduction to her from Sherwood Anderson, who was back in Chicago. He had been to shy to present it. 'I am writing this,' said the letter,' to make you acquainted with my friend Ernest Hemingway...an American writer instinctively in touch with everything worthwhile going on here and I know you will find both Mr. and Mrs. Hemingway delightful people to know.'"

Author Humphrey Carter is a British writer who has written biographies of W.H. Auden, J.R.R. Tolkien, and C.S. Lewis. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and recipient of the E.M. Forster Award.

I loved this book. I'll read it again soon. It's intelligent, sympathetic, scholarly and imminently readable. It's a thoroughly engaging examination of a time, a community and a world that had tremendous impact on literary fashion. I give it the highest recommendation - it's delightful.

Gino, The Countess & Chagall is a deeply engaging novel set in post-World War II Italy and France. A world of art and artists where Gino, a former soldier, becomes a lowly assistant to a master artist who is restoring one of Italy's great frescoes. Gino then moves on to Paris where he struggles for artistic recognition and support in his own right. A scheming half-brother, a vulnerable sister, a series of art masters, beautiful women comprise a memorable cast of characters in this outstanding novel of war and peace, love and hate, art and artists.

Seeing how we share the same last name and maybe the same first name but I don't know about the middle, I have come to the conslusion that this is a great book and I'm not even related to this guy. I know no one believes me but if I were or are related please send cash asap. I need to buy some beer. I have actually waited a long time for this book because I have followed this actors career ever since I saw his name in credits 20 years ago. Black listed from Hollywood, it is finally time for this actor to get his 15 minutes of fame again and again and agaian. Don't let it go to your head this time and for goodness sakes stay away from the Reds.

This manuscript is in itself unique: it is the largest book of hours I know of, and was famous for this as well as for its quality throughout Europe - even if few people every will have laid eyes on it. After the death of the Duke of Berry - the extraordinary bibliophile who commissioned it - it was passed through royal libraries and proudly owned as a special treasure. You can see why when leafing through this stunning facsimile reproduction. If you ever wondered what it may have felt like to be sitting in the Duke's medieval library, burying himself in the glories of this volume that had cost a fortune and the efforts of a host of the best-known artists in the land, then here's your chance. Page after page, the real-size and real-colour (including gold) facsimiles get you as close as any book ever will. To exaggerate slightly, I get almost as big a thrill out of owning this book, and being able to leaf through it at will, as the royals of medieval Europe will have done. This is facsimile publishing at it superb best.

The Great Houses Of Paris is an exquisitely illustrated history of the grand town houses known as "Hotel Particuliers." They are considered to be the equivilent of the Italian Palazzi. This work examines their rise and near fall from the Middle Ages, through the Second Empire. All of them are now Historic Residences. Size was not a crucial criterion for these sumptous town houses to be designated "Hotel Particulier," but, rather an owner's rank and wealth. This work is most successful in tracing the social and political history in which these mansions survived. Indeed, many notables graced the grand salons, such as Thomas Jefferson, And Madame De Pompadour, and with this book we can get a glimpse into the past and how these people lived. Today, few of these grand houses remain in private hands, and many have been turned into luxurary apartments.

Overall, A highly important work that makes a first-rate contribution to the history of Architecture.

A brilliant guide to Ernest Hemingway's haunts in Paris. Informative, interesting, and easy to use it sets up easy walking tours to all Hemingway sights in Paris and gives informative/in-depth information about all of them....both from a Hemingwayesque perspective and from the perspective of the building's modern uuse. A Bible for all Hemingway aficionados traveling in Europe.

Very exhaustive and subtle review of Caillebotte's art and personnality

This is one of my favorite children's books. Oh, and my kids love it too! I had to write a review when I saw that no one else had written one on this terrific book.

Arthur Yorinks infuses his story with sophisticated humor that adults will enjoy and kids will giggle at. The illustrations by Martin Matje are the perfect complement to this delightful story. You will go Lulu over "Harry and Lulu."