Paris

Boring is all I can say. The characters didn't even seem real. Read Home Fires by this author. It is wonderful. Can't believe this got published.

I must preface this review by saying that Luanne Rice is one of my very favorite authors. Her books, which are generally filled with wonderful relationships, usually find me hugging her books and crying at the end of them. But unfortunately, Secrets of Paris was a grand disappointment when I read it recently. I certainly looked forward to reading one of Ms. Rice's earliest books but found in the end it was a grand disappointment and held very few secrets for me as a reader. I do wonder if I had read it when I first found this author if I would have continued reading her books. Then again, perhaps if I read this one first I might have seen her progression into the beloved author I now think about when I hear her name or see a new book by her.

The plot revolved around three women living and working in Paris. Lydie is a stylist who has accompanied her husband for the year as he works on an assignment at the Louvre. Patrice is an American woman who is married to a Parisian businessman and meets Lydie at a café. Rounding out the trio is Kelly, a Filipino woman who is Patrice's maid and longs to live in the United States. What happens between these three women as they forge a bond and try to help Kelly get to the United States should be of interest but failed to move me.

Although I didn't care for this book, I do recommend that anybody who loves family stories and relationship consider reading other books by Luanne Rice. Titles like The Perfect Summer, Blue Moon Home Fires and The Firefly trilogy are top reads from her and ones which even now just thinking about put a smile on my face.

The characters are very poorly developed in this story. I have read Luanne Rice before and feel very cheated that this book was just a bore.

unless you speak French, which I do not. How annoying.

Had hoped that this might be a red guide in English. It isn't in English, notwithstanding the Amazon title of "Paris and Environs". I am sending it back.

Using symbols whose meanings are explained both in French and English, this Paris guide lists hotels and restaurants in Paris and its near suburbs. The rankings are reliable, if not 100% comprehensive. Textual descriptions for all entries were added in recent years. Although they are only in French it tends to be fairly straight-forward (as opposed to other guides that use more inaccessable slang or cutesy locutions).

For those who are interested in exploring the restaurants of Paris there are infinite resources. The Michelin Guide Rouge is the backstop, though. It is organized by arrondissements, i.e., neighborhoods, in Paris, but also sorts restaurants and hotels by categories such as good value meals, inexpensive hotels, restaurants featuring certain dishes, and--these can be important--restaurants open throughout the summer and restaurants open on Sunday.

One shortcoming: the arrondissement maps are accurate but not as detailed as a true Paris street map. Those will cost about as much as this book, but they will be useful to you during those parts of the day you are not eating as well.

Mundane recipes with little preparation information, but terrific photos. Buy it if you only like to look at food. Inexperienced cooks will be confused by the lack of preparation instructions. Serious cooks will find this book dull.

I borrowed this book for a dinner party, and while I won't buy my own, there are a few recipes I'd make again -- a suitable description of my overall happiness with it.

Good things: the recipes are accessible to novice cooks (like me), minor errors and amateurish skills are (mostly) ok, and we were able to pull off all of the recipes we tried.

Bad things: there are a lot of gotchas, like assumptions about tools that novice cooks may not have; the portion measurements were regularly off (every dish we made didn't come out to the right amount -- too many, too few...); the ratings of easy to hard seem way off.

Overall, some hits (pronto puff pizzas, salmon/trout roulade) and some misses (cheese-filled mushrooms) with the crowd, and I wouldn't rush to make any of them again.

This must have been a very helpful book when it was first published in 1996. It provides a good discussion of the financial issues one faces at retirement...income, risks, investment diversity. It also reviews good mutual fund bets for one retiring. Unfortunately the usefulness of the 1996 fund recommendations has diminished significantly. It's time for an update!

I was so disapointed with this book when I got it. I wanted some ANALYSIS and scholarship in conjunction with the photographs...but NO, there was NONE TO BE FOUND. The reproductions are nice and if you just want something to look at fine...get the book. However, if you actually want to read a book about french studios this is not the book to buy.

The book was thoroughly crammed with information, and it was very difficult to understand all that was going on with the various factions of the parlement. One chapter could have been an entire book, and then it would have been understandable. He also does NOT translate the French passages. He stated that he chose not to translate because it would not help anything. If you cannot read French, do NOT buy this book. I do not read French and was annoyed because a large portion of the book is in French and you miss so much information because it was not translated.

The main reason why I bought this book is the fact that it represents some of the very first pictures of the nude. However, this includes that the photos are inblack and white and not of the very best quality all the time. Happily, there are only female subjects in this book, and ofently two women are pictured together.Still, the pictures are a bit boring and political correct. The amusement is therefore limited, and all in all, I wouldn't recommend this book, besides the fact that it is a piece of history.

I feel that the whole book made a distinct public comment on handicapped peoples. It showed how ignorant and intolerant Disney is about those of us who may not walk erect. The fact that some people's back's are a little crooked, is no laughing matter. The folks at Disney are uncaring and insensitive to the feelings of others. I would advise everyone to never buy this book. And those of you who have-burn it!

First the size of the album that comes with the CDROM is much
less than what my be thought: it's about 7x6. The size mentioned in the description goes for the package of the CDROM and the album. The CDROM is also disappointing with small pictures, and
an interface that belongs to the days of MS-DOS.

The information on the famous sights of Paris is useful for kids (not little ones) who have some interest in history, but the Pop-ups are all "assembly required", do-it-yourselfers, and pretty complicated at that. I just wasn't expecting a time-consuming craft project, although with careful work (adult help needed)the results are pretty impressive.