Paris

If you cannot go to Paris, then buy this book and bring some of Paris to you.

Greenspan (Baking with Julia) has done it again - another book that deciphers and presents some complicated recipes into approachable masterpieces. The recipes work (at least the ones I've tried), and I have foisted them on some of my French friends, some of whom immediately identified it and the shop the recipe came from (Earl Grey Madeleines, from Mariage Frères, for example). That constitutes success.

The book is organized cleverly, with the simpler recipes in the front, and more and more complex recipes as you work your way through. Though Greenspan does not say she is doing this by design, it is clearly the case. After each recipe, she has some tips and suggestions she calls "An American in Paris," in which she tells you things she does to make the recipe more in her own style, as an American living in Paris.

This is not a primer on French pastry, however, and you will learn little about technique; although there are many classic desserts in this book, it is not comprehensive, by any means. But that does not lessen its value.

There are some nice touches at the end of the book, too. Places to buy ingredients that might be hard to find, and of course, addresses and contact information for all the pastry shops that contributed to the book. Get out your Paris street map and start planning your next trip...

I love France, their cutlure, and their food. This book gives little stories about how and where the foods originated from and I absolutely love the book. The recipes are easy to follow and everything French comes out perfect. If you love French food, culture, and France in general, and if you like sweets, you'll love this cookbook!!!

I have used several recipes from Ms Greenspans book and find the majority to be tasty and easy to make. I also liked the cultural "tidbits" that the author includes with each recipe. The only thing that some people might find intimidating is that several of the recipes call for blanched almonds. You can buy blanched almonds in the bulk food section of your grocery store, or you can blanche your own. To blanche almonds, place almonds in boiling water for 3 to 5 min. . Take almonds out of boiling water and place in cold water for 5 to 10 min. . Squeeze almonds out of their skins with your thumb and fore finger and discard skins. I have found that one pound of blanched almonds will make about three of the cookie recipes in Paris Sweets

I liked Wide Sargasso Sea and thought this book had promise (based on the back cover synopsis). That will teach me to fall for the b.c. synopses, which I should have learned by now. I think the story is not at all compelling, but could have been if we'd learned just a bit more about the characters, their motivations, their backgrounds. I found the writing annoying: in reading passages of dialog I was often startled to see that a quotation was what a character was thinking, not saying. These "thought quotations" were mixed in w/ "spoken quotations," making for jumpy reading. A graceless approach to telling a slight but potentially graceful story. I DID like her descriptions of Paris and other French cities. And I was intrigued by her frequent mention of the color red. I might try other books by her, but it's unlikely.

Quartet was Jean Rhys' first novel. It is the story of Marya, a British expatriate living in Paris in the early part of the 20th century. She is acutely self-conscious and yet utterly incapable of changing her life to achieve happiness. Her life revolves around two men: Stephan, her vague Polish husband and HJ, a married British ex-pat who is extremely social and active in the arts. Marya's life has been pared down to essentials: dining, drinking, reading and waiting for her husband to return. When she finds Stephan has been unexpectedly arrested her attachment to him is disturbed. Craving affection and financial security, she desperately attempts to discover why Stephan has been arrested and how she can stay in contact with him. However, she quickly takes up with HJ and his wife, Lois. Her emotions become dangerously tangled between the two. Meandering through defeat after defeat entirely unsatisfied and pining for the money to pay for her rent and a glass of brandy, she ultimately has to face the consequences of her love affair. Marya is vaguely dissatisfied and compulsively tragic. In her life which closely parallels Rhys' own, she finds no remission for the terribly existential fact of life.

In this novel Rhys subtly satirizes her affair with Ford Madox Ford and the life she led with him in Paris. This time of great artistic innovation is reduced to the bare facts of the debased livelihood of the expatriates: their drinking and intertwining sexual affairs. Rhys is unremittingly spare in her emotional honesty. Her prose are hollowed out just as the main character's personality is hollowed out. There is nothing tender about this fictitious recreating. It is brutal, just as Rhys' vision of life. Emotions seep out in sporadic bursts and the rest is contemptuously smoking a cigarette and watching passers by. But the gaze of Marya's is incredibly telling. Her feelings are projected outward onto the people surrounding her. A man or woman witnessed walking by or sitting on the opposite side of a café will inhabit the emotions Marya does not allow to pool inside her. In this way, Rhys fiction is a strong precursor to Alain Robbe-Grillet's because of the intensely violent subjectivity of the character's perception of the world. The solemn nature of novel evokes powerful feelings of sympathy and sorrow.

"Quartet" by Jean Rhys is the story of the vunerable and weak-willed Marya Zelli. Happily married to Stephan, Marya leads an interesting, bohemian life in Paris in the 1920s. Marya doesn't ask questions about Stephan's professional life, and she is stunned, helpless and stranded when Stephan is arrested. Suddenly, there's no money, and Marya suddenly has to start worrying about how she will survive. When Stephan is sentenced to prison, he is so concerned with his own predicament that he doesn't really consider Marya's plight. He vaguely suggests that Marya write to her long estranged relatives in England for money, but Marya is soon facing eviction and starvation.

At this point, Lois and HJ Heidler enter Marya's life. Lois--a large, commanding woman who has pretensions of artistic ability insists on taking Marya under her wing. The Heidlers insist that Marya moves in with them, and Marya--who is at first repulsed by HJ--suddenly finds herself thrown into his company while Lois makes rapid exits. Heidler--who possesses incredible force of will--hunts Marya relentlessly. Marya really doesn't have any friends to warn her against becoming involved with the Heidlers, and soon Marya finds herself in a very exploitative, compromising situation.

There's a sort of hopeless inevitability to "Quartet"--and in that sense it is thematically similar to "After Leaving Mr Mackenzie" and "Good Morning, Midnight." However, the heroine, Marya, is younger, less corrupt, and rather undeserving of the circumstances she finds herself unable to escape from. Readers can compare Marya Zelli's situation to Jane Eyre--Jane Eyre literally runs away from the temptations offered to her by Mr Rochester. Marya Zelli, however, does not possess the same strength of character, and "Quartet" follows Marya's mental deterioration as her willpower erodes.

This is my fourth novel by Jean Rhys. Many people dismiss Rhys as a depressing novelist, and it's true--if you want a happy ending, you should probably look elsewhere, but there is a sort of naked honesty to these novels that make them compelling and unforgettable reading. I prefer "Quartet" to "Wide Sargasso Sea," and it is equal to "After Leaving Mr MacKenzie" and "Good Morning, Midnight." If you enjoyed this novel, I also recommend "The House of Mirth" for its heroine, Lily Bart, reminds me of Marya Zelli--displacedhuman

What do aliens, a murdered pilot, a wise-cracking PR professional and a not-so-sleepy town have in common? They're all part of the wild ride we take in "The Clovis Incident," Pari Noskin Taichert's witty read about an abnormal turn of events in the tiny town of Clovis, New Mexico.

Sasha Solomon, the savvy but imperfect protagonist, is off to Clovis to land a job promoting the area's attractions. While in Clovis, the public relations practitioner hooks up with longtime friend Mae, a Clovis native and rancher. But the Mae she encounters is shaky and nervous, and persistent probing by the un-shy Sasha reveals why: There's a corpse with its head stuck in a cattle trough on Mae's land. Not only that, but the usually steadfast Mae reveals that she is being visited by space aliens who kidnap her, let her go, then kidnap her again.

With the plot deftly established, Noskin Taichert unfolds her tale against the backdrop of Clovis - the kind of place whose slower, interesting rhythms urbanites yearn to understand. The story line moves quickly in this fun, engaging read. We learn about public relations, which is neat; and we get to look closely at Sasha, whose imperfect humanity we find refreshing, even reassuring. (She hallucinates, she has a talking cat, and she shoots aerosol-propelled whipped cream into her mouth as comfort food.)

With its quirky twists and turns, The Clovis Incident is one heck of a whodunnit. Read it for adventure; read it for fun. I can't wait for Noskin Taichert's next effort.

Want to take an unusual roller coast ride of a mystery? Pari Noskin Taichert's debut novel, "The Clovis Incident," introduces offbeat series heroine Sasha Solomon, a freelance PR professional who gets a New Age trancendental overload and is fired from her job--all in the first chapter. Hallucinations, space aliens, a killer, Sasha battles them all as she researches the small New Mexico town of Clovis in search of a lucrative PR job. She lands in the middle of a murder when an old friend finds a body on her land. Sasha deals with an intriguing gallery of small town characters, vindictive relatives, and cops of all types who become involved because the victim was an important foreign military officer. The reader bounces with Sasha from likely suspect to likely suspect. Her inquiring mind eventually gets her into trouble--several threats and two life-threatening situations--before she figures out the killer and the motivation.

Pari has finished a second Sasha novel and is busy on a third. Readers can look forward to more adventures in out of the way New Mexico small towns as Sasha continues looking for employment but finds mystery and suspense.

Pari Noskin Taichert is a journalist and public relations consultant. She draws upon her experience and expertise in The Clovis Incident, an intriguing and superbly crafted murder mystery which following the unexpected adventure of Sasha Solomon, an ordinary PR director fired from her job as PR director of Albuquerque's only holistic HMO, and then travels to the small New Mexico town of Clovis to bid on a PR project for the local Chamber of Commerce only to become entangled in a dark and ruthless plot of murder and intrigue. An exciting journey through hidden motives in a desperate search to protect oneself with the power of truth and insight before it is too late, The Clovis Incident is unique and compelling in its masterful interplay of layers of plot. The Clovis Incident is Taichert's rather impressive debut effort and will quickly earn her legions of appreciative fans who will look eagerly toward her next title.

All back & white tiny pictures, bad paper qulity. Not much informations on it. I expect more from this price.

I very much enjoyed reading this practical book which gave me great ideas about building indoors fountains. I also appreciated the author's spiritual touch in her foreword, introduction and in chapter 3 which were quite inspiring and uplifting to me.

This book explains things clearly making it very easy to create your own indoor fountain. There is much information and many beautiful pictures on every page. I have found that the soothing sounds of water bring peace and relaxation. I have made two fountains so far and I am working on a third as a gift.

The Phantom of Paris

Ok, first off, I don't wish to be cruel when judging or reviewing this book but: this book is nothing but Phan Phic in a shiny cover. I've read better Phan Phic online! (and I normally find that only 30% of it to be "true to Erik").
This is a noble attempt by a teenager, but its definitely NOT worth $19.95 as you can, as mentioned before, get better Phantom stories online for free! How ever did she get this book published?
M. Vehlow gives us a very, very flat presentation of a Phantom "continuation tale"...it paints Erik as being COMPLETELY common, which, if any of you are even remotely familiar with him knows that he's anything but that! Where's the mystery? Where are his stately mannerisms? The eloquence? I mean, truly...can you imagine Erik in a pillow fight? A pillow fight! UGH! And, gentle reader, can you imagine Erik interacting with the Opera managers and giving lessons to "students" who come to the Opera to meet and learn from the great M Edlemann (Erik's "real name" in this tale)? Where the hell did our author get THAT name? Everything is so unexplained in this story....there is no real foundation! We're just to accept it all as fact...that everything is just hunky-dory and Erik has successfully acclimated to and assimilated to society...and he's totally accepted...right??? What is going on here?
Oh, and then there's Christine's little "break off" with Raoul, which at the beginning he accepts with little to no protest...as if it were nothing but a high school break up...and everybody just accepts the fact that this mysterious M. Edlemann just happens out of nowhere and Christine is his newest student...yadda, yadda, yadda...She's suddenly the best in the world and the managers can't live without her...She has an answer for EVERYTHING...and then there's little old Monique...Who the heck is she? She's supposedly Christine's best friend, etc, etc, etc... who's now taking lessons from Erik...and knows the de Chagny family.....
Oh, but the main kicker for me is the fact that Erik is in no way an introvert and traipses around with a mask on that make him look like "everyone else" while conversing with the managers and totally turning over a new leaf...(no more murders, or blackmailing the managers, exercising his magic, ventriloquism etc....). Wouldn't others realize that Erik had a mask on???? M. Vehlow makes Erik out to be an ordinary, run-of-the-mill "pretty boy" with a mask....I know that the original novel mentions that Erik had developed a mask that would make him look like everyone else, but...M. Vehlow goes too far with this.... I am well aware of the fact that Erik wanted to be accepted...and to live like everyone else, but this story doesn't even give us a look at who or what Erik was....He was remarkable! Incredible! Beyond mere words! He was not this plain, ordinary music teacher, earning his way by giving music lessons....in a mask that nobody seemed to notice is a mask...
I'm sorry, but M. Vehlow fails miserably at capturing the essence of Erik. My God, but she have taken my most cherished literary character and thrusts him in an environment that is totally unacceptable...she's striped him of his majesty, his masterful and beautiful soul! Oh, and the ending ? I'm trying to forget the ending entirely, as it has become a stain upon my memory! Oh, Vehlow...how could you?
If you are a true student of Erik and more than a mere "phantom phan" don't waste your time or money. This book is a dismal attempt at Phantom writing and is nothing but mere literary fodder! If I were M. Vehlow's English professor, I'd have given her a D+. Sorry....but our author has in NO way done Erik any justice here....it's just another twisted tale of Erik to flood our minds....another tale that is as twisted and distorted as Erik's own face....A dreadful book....

I just got and read the book "Phantom of Paris" by Gwenith M. Vehlow. While Miss Vehlow has some obvious potential as a writer, and I fully support young writers (she is 17), but I was sorely disapointed in the quality of her work, and found it to be little more than semi-glorified phan phiction in a printed form, full of predicable phan phiction cliches (i.e. Raoul is suddenly a terrible, terrible monster, and Erik makes a miraculous change of heart, etc, etc).
Important characters were mentioned fleetingly or left out, while other smaller characters who did little to further the plot were focused on. All in all, a real disapointment for this Phantom Phan.

What can I say? Gwen amazed me. While not really a phantom phan, and not exactly expecting to sympathize much with his plight, she made me truly feel for him. In especial during the last few chapters... no spoilers here, I promise. But in them, the complexity of the story came through beautifully. I was struck over and again by the contrasts and underlying meanings found there. Exceedingly commendable undertaking, made all the more admirable when considering the fact Gwen was 15 when the majority of the writing took place. Awesome job, Gwen! Love to hear more from you!
PS Write something about pirates, would you? Please.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame is beyond all doubt the single most boring book I've ever read (beating out both Aristotle's Ethics and Darwin's Origins of the Species).

The book opens with an allegedly scene-setting description of a festival, wherein most of the main characters (and many minor and never-to-be-seen-again characters) are introduced. This would be fine and dandy if Hugo simply introduced them, but he feels compelled to spend an entire chapter (thankfully they are brief chapters) on each character -- even the walk-ons!

The title character spends precious little time in the actual text -- his archdeacon foster-father/master, Dom Frollo is the real protagonist (albeit an antihero at best). Basically, Quasimodo is to Frollo as Igor is to Victor Frankenstein.

The story picks up a bit after the festival (centered around an aborted play), although the plot is already stretching one's tolerance for corn: a dejected, penniless philosopher-poet follows a muse-figure through the Paris streets, fights with a one-eyed, hunchbacked dwarf, is kidnapped by an army of beggars (straight out of Brecht's Threepenny Opera), and is saved from hanging when the muse figure (a gypsy dancer with a 200 IQ'd goat) offers to "marry" him. Huge groan.

Still this section is enjoyable corn.

But....

Hugo then stops the action dead for 25 pages while he describes the architecture of Notre dame (5 pages) and that of the entire city of Paris (as seen from the roof of Notre Dame - 20 pages). I can imagine nothing more boring than a 19th century author's interminable description of the various buildings and streets of a 16th century city. This segment stands out as a textbook example of how NOT to write a story, and should be required reading for any wannabe author (or any lousy author needing a mild ego boost).

When the story picks up again -- little by little, and inclusive of more life-stories on every 2-bit character who comes within 20 yards of the plot (I'm guessing Hugo was getting paid by the word-count), the hackneyed plot cliches start piling up thick and fast. (Does anyone NOT know from the get-go that the crazy old hermit-lady who screams curses at the gypsy is really her long-lost mother?)

Stylistically, the book seems torn between being a satire and a tragedy -- with the end result that it is neither. Why Hugo feels a need to Satirize the Paris of 300 years before his day is beyond me (I mean, they did have a Revolution or two in the interim). Certainly the problems with a 16th century Parisian legal system have little bearing on the reader of today (the farcical interlude wherein a deaf judge gets angered by a deaf dwarf's inability to properly answer his questions would be bitingly satirical had it applied to Hugo's day (and not his great-great-great-great-great grandfather's).

But the real trouble with the satire is that Hugo often (indeed 90+ percent of the time) seems to be sneering at his characters and their foibles. It is hard to feel much empathy for them when they serve merely as objects for their creator's scorn. Yet Hugo pulls out all stops (during several crucial moments) in an attempt to grab the reader by his heartstrings: characters cry and tear out their hair, rip their clothes, lavish tearful kisses on baby shoes ....

The end result was that it took me nearly half a year to read this 225 page book. I put it aside several times (reading 2 Poe biographies, Wuthering Heights, Mark Twain's Autobio, and the complete works of Tennyson whenever the Hunchback became too boring to take).

As to Hugo's supposed greatness -- well, I suppose the French had to nominate somebody and were, understandably, hard-up for candidates. Suffice to say, I shan't be reading Les Misb.

'The Hunchback of Notre Dame' is a wonderful story. On the outside, and even after a careless first reading, it may seem like nothing more than an obvious melodrama, a horror classic, or a nineteenth century version of a bodice-ripping potboiler. But it is a deeper, more fulfilling tale than any of those three descriptions suggest. The novel achieves the power of tragedy through its titular character, Quasimodo, the hunchback.

That's not to say, however, that there aren't points of obvious melodrama. There's a lot of tearing clothes and long speeches, and if you don't know who the crazy beggar woman is immediately, you've probably been asleep. It's true that you can see most of the plot twists coming, but Hugo works that to his advantage. It makes the tragedy even MORE tragic, because you can see how everyone's fate could've changed for a happy ending, but you can't stop it.

What causes Hugo's novel to be heartbreaking, and to remain fixed in the minds and hearts of readers for hundreds of years, has to be Quasimodo. The only character truly capable of love in the book, he is also the one who remains forever misunderstood, and forever unable to voice his own opinions. (Notre Dame's bells have made him deaf; there's a metaphor in there somewhere.) He's torn between love for the man who is the closest he has to a father, Frollo, and the beautiful gypsy girl Esmarelda. He tries to protect and care for both, and when he is unable to, tragedy ensues.

Hugo describes sixteenth century Paris in loving detail, painting a vivid picture of Notre Dame cathedral and all of its belltowers and buttresses. His characters are all interesting creatures who want to find happiness but are forever screwing themselves up. Hugo makes the good choice of having his characters fuel the tragedy. They aren't just caught in bad circumstances, they make their bad circumstances. (You'll want to kick Esmarelda several times before the end of the book.) Melodrama it may be, but what in nineteenth century literature wasn't? At least it's pretty good melodrama.

Just as you must look past Quasimodo's forbidding appearance to discover his tender heart, so must you look beyond the novel's sensationalist subject matter and occasional emoting and find the meat of the story; the tender tragedy of unrequited love, the destruction of repression and lust, and the impact people's choices have upon others and themselves, all bound up in a fascinating historical drama.

This book is an excellent example of a style of writing that no has really duplicated in past years. How Victor Hugo slyly involves the reader in the story is ingenious.

While the story does have its moments that lack action of any sort, the detailed descriptions of the scenes give you the impression that he was witnessing the events of the book and telling them to you firsthand.

Also the characters are extremely well fleshed out and complicated. They are so engrossing because of their qualities, and made even more interesting because of their faults.

An excellent, tragic read, and made even better if you have traveled to Paris in recent years.

This historical play is better than some other plays by Marlowe because the events it is based on are, by themselves, well built and full of suspense. But Marlowe insists on the negative side of things. He sees Edward as a perverted King who only revels in carnal pleasure with his minions. He wastes the money of the crown and irritates all the Barons and the Queen. This leads to his death. Marlowe then shows Mortimer, the Queen's lover, as a tyrant, a dictator, a criminal, an unpolitical figure, and that leads him to his fatal end. Marlowe likes gross events and bloody acts. He has all his « victims » executed on the stage and even Edward is killed in full sight of the audience in a most disgustful way in a dungeon that is the receptacle of all the rejects of Berkeley Castle, particularly from its toilets and its water closets. The only moment of epiphany is the sudden revelation of Edward III as a King of justice. But here again this new teenage King goes to some extremes and has his mother sent to the Tower of London, though, we know, she will survive thirty one years. Marlowe probably invented Elizabethan drama, but he could not - and did not have enough time to do so - bring it to the level it will reach only with Shakespeare. His language definitely is the « blank verse beast » that Bernard Shaw rejected. It flows marvellously and fluently but it has none of the poetry, beauty and embroidery that Shakespeare's will master and illustrate.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

The situation considered in the play is great and promising. The shift from one king to a third via a second. The civil strife of some nobles against the kings in order to reinstate a noble line, the Bourbons, back on the throne with the Italian Queen Mother as an accomplice or manipulator of ill repute. The religious background of the war between the Catholics and the Huguenots, a war that is grossly excessive and absurd and that brought extreme horror in the hands of the Catholics. All that could have made a good plot and a good play. Unluckily it is as schematic as a journalese report on the situation in a people publication. There never is any depth in these men and Marlowe takes great pleasure in exhibiting all the crimes, murders, assassinations on the stage. Marlowe is the ancestor and creator of horror films. He is the model that will entrance and inspire so many in literature and the cinema. He was a success in his days because of his gross approach but he does not stand in the subsequent centuries for the same reason : the plays are shallow, the plots are simplistic, the language is bland and tasteless.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

Marlowe will never equal Shakespeare. That's absolutely banal to say so. In this double play dealing with the historically asserted conqueror, Emperor and tyrant, Timur Lenk (1336-1405), a descendant of Gengis Khan, the character could give us a great play. A lot of battles against very different worlds and peoples from Asia to Africa and Europe. All kinds of religions mixing in these countries : christians, moslems, pagans, etc. An area that was at the time the center of philosophy, poetry and science. The bloodthirsty tyrant Marlowe depicts is a caricature of what he must have been. You do not conquer vast worlds without understanding their cultures and integrating them in you. You do not conquer vast worlds by destroying all their cities and exterminating their populations. You have to put them on your side if you want to get something out of it : it is the work of simple people that creates all riches, and to last long (two generations in this case) you definitely must bring them something that entices them into some acceptance. Marlowe only depicts the bloody tyrant and at times it becomes laughable in its excess. Even his love for his « conquered » queen is made rather trite and his queen does not have any deep pangs of conscience when her own father, the King of Egypt, is brought into slavery. His killing one of his three sons because this son refuses to be a warrior is treated as if it were a trite little event. Marlowe is, in other words, superficial, and his language has no poetry. He is the B series of Shakespeare's time.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

man this book gets boring at times. it's more the history of the neighborhood and medieval and renaissance parisian life as it took place around the author's apartment building. Maybe the other books I've read about Paris are overly sentimental, but this book does little to invoke the romance of the city of lights.

for instance: there is an entire chapter devoted to a legal wrangle which took place over the non-payment of taxes on the home, in which various people bickered over the ownership in the 17th century. this should have been at most a paragraph.

there are some fascinating descriptions of period toilets,17th century french bathing habits, and 13th century house construction. the length of space devoted to meaningless crap is stunning.

some bits of it are interesting. i love the marais, and thought it would give a sense of the personality of the area, particularly as the cover makes it seem like quite a warm book. it isn't. but if you want to know about feudal french land taxes and Cardinal Richeliu's preferred urinal (the fireplace), then this book is for you.

This book reminded me of William Murray's City of Soul, about Rome. Karmel is obviously in love with his Paris and it is infectious.

The narrative about Karmel's first trip to Paris, then how he moved to Paris and bought an apartment in the Marais was intriguing, although his detours into the history of the neighborhood were less interesting. I found I wanted to know more about Karmel and his wife than about who had lived in his street two hundred years ago.

And the photographs! There are some marvelous black and white Atget photos in this book and although there really isn't much going on in them, these studies of shadow and light are worth the price of the book alone.

This is a relatively small and delightful book that offers a snapshot of life in Paris throughout history. The author purchased a small appartment in an old and relatively untouched partof Paris, and decided to research the history surroounding it. Thus he embarks on a bit of an adventure to find out about the previous owners and the building's usage, and in doing so gives the reader a (relatively brief) overview of the area.

It really is a charming view of Paris and the joys of living in a city that has seen so much history, from the earliest times when the area was outside the old walled city, up to the revolution, the Nazi occupation and the terrorism that blights the world today. The story is told in a charming and light hearted manner, and will appeal to those with a real interest in old Paris and all of its pleasures.

A small criticism - it could have been a bigger and more detailed book. Obviously a city such as Paris has a fabulous and fascinating history that the house observed in its quiet way from its unobtrusive corner. Perhaps there were no historical documents that tie it to these great events, but it was there nonetheless, and I feel that the book lacks a litle for these omissions.

Having said that, it is a charming book, and one which is well worth your time.

Does anyone else find it suspicious that 4 people reviewed this book with 5 stars the day after I reviewed it saying I like another book better?

Valerie Gwinner's the real thing--a Franco-American girl who grew up in both countries and now has Franco-American kids of her own. She knows the unusual and entertaining spots that kids love to return to again and again and that keep their parents intrigued, as well. She realizes that children's attention spans are limited and that they need variety; that museums are fine but that the city's wide open spaces are what they'll remember, as well. She knows they crave the familiar along with the exotic and that they need to engage their energy as well as their brains. If only this book had been available a long time ago there'd have been a whole generation of parents who'd have taken their children traveling as soon as they could walk and talk.

Our family found this book an excellent guide to find fun and unusual adventures in Paris. While the words Travel, Education, History and Fun don't often conjure up excitement in children (or many adults for that matter) you can be assured that this book will point you to creative and investigative things to do in and around Paris. The best part is that our children obliviously absorbed the Education and History during the trip. Ms. Gwinner's tour ideas for the Marais district of Paris were of particular interest to our Harry Potter fanclub daughters, as well as leading us to the amazing "science Museum" of Paris... the Musee des Arts et Metiers.
Also of note were the quirky and interesting highlights placed throughout the book - like the "Gory Facts." I would have thought this would be more appropriate for teenage boys, but our girls loved the tidbits of historic macabre details. The Catacombs, the guillotine, famous cemetery...
Of even more importance to parents are the helpful suggestions for dining, restrooms and parks. Overall, I rate this book very good for the whole family - it provided a new insight into the Paris I have been to many times. I am happy to report that our experience in Paris was very child friendly. Maybe this was because we were prepared by "Paris with Kids."

Before purchasing this book, I read all the customer comments which gave nothing but praise. I just don't get it. I wish one of the reviewers would have given me tips on how to stay awake while plodding through each sentence/paragraph, along with where to find a single nugget in these pages worth remembering. Okay, I'll probably always wonder how the author's love of boxing was deemed worth inclusion, but then I wonder why the entire book was printed. I feel suckered! And can't think of anything to recommend this book. My advice is to spend your money on ANYTHING written by M.F.K. Fisher, "The Tummy Trilogy" by Calvin Trillin or "Blue Trout and Black Truffles" by Joseph Wechsberg for much more pleasurable reading.

I have to say that I did not find Liebling's book as much of an enthralling delight as the other reviewers. Much of that could simply be due to the fact that I was expecting a book about eating in Paris and about the joys of French food. The subject matter of the book was neither Paris of the 1920s nor French food, though both crop up with great frequency in his essays. The essays are more personal riffs on Mr Liebling's own life experiences which happen to be in Paris and of which food played a major part.

However, I frankly did not find Mr Liebling's life to be so interesting that I wanted to read about it. Nor did I find his writing to be particulary humourous or engaging. This could well be due to my lack of sympathy for Mr Liebling's view of the world. In particular, his espousal of the virtues of being fat, and his disparaging remarks on the form of the 50s woman I found exceedingly disconcerting.

So, yes, I do realise that he is supposed to be a classic food writer of his age, but I will say that perhaps he has not worn well with time. (Although if I wanted to read a writer of about the same period, I'd go to M K Fisher any day!)

My Personal Rating Scale:
5 stars: Engaging, well-written, highly entertaining or informative, thought provoking, pushes the envelope in one or more ways, a classic.
4 stars: Engaging, well-written, highly entertaining or informative. Book that delivers well in terms of its specific genre or type, but does not do more than that.
3 stars: Competent. Does what it sets out to do competently, either on its own terms on within the genre, but is nothing special. May be clichéd but is still entertaining.
2 stars: Fails to deliver in various respects. Significantly clichéd. Writing is poor or pedestrian. Failed to hold my attention.
1 star: Abysmal. Fails in all respects.

Much of Between the Meals, as the title suggests, is about what happens between meals, though the meals are always there in the background. When Liebling talks about friendship and love, he is superb; when he describes his apprenticeship in eating, however, he is incomparable. Others (a few) may write as well; others may have as sensitive a palate, but no serious writer can match Liebling's perverse determination in the pursuit of culinary pleasure and gigantic appetite. This is the finest book on eating ever written by an American. Being a Francophile, Liebling was mistaken in asserting that France is superior to China in its culinary art. He forgot that he was describing the--as he puts it-- "late silver" age of French cuisine, the 1920s, during which most people in China were starving. Today, of course, France is probably in the Bronze age; and the Chinese have just recovered from famines. But that mistake aside, this book is thoroughly satisfying, highly recommended for those,i.e. all of us, who must accept mediocre cooking everyday.