Just got back from five days in Paris; this is the guidebook we referred to again and again. The walking tour approach to getting to know neighborhoods is great to read in advance, and great for choosing a hotel (Cheap Sleeps in Paris for that task). The book is small in size so easy to carry. The best of the lot.

Elizabeth Morris's Travel Guide to Paris, written under the auspices of Thomas Cook, is a wonderful and clear guide to the neighborhoods, museums, churches and monuments of Paris. It includes several day excursions out of the city as well. I would like to see it restocked because I don't believe I have seen a clearer depiction of what Paris has to offer anywhere else. Ms. Morris's walking tours are superb and informative. It's just a really good resource.

The Rumble Of A Distant Drum is a research work on the founding, flourishing, and fall of Arkansas Post, the first European settlement (1686) in Jefferson's Louisiana Purchase. Precariously perched on the banks of the lower Arkansas River, the history of the French outpost founded by Henry de Tonty presents many convincing examples of peaceful and productive coexistence and symbiotic interaction between the Quapaws and Frenchmen in five to six generations. Both culture's languages and bloods intermixed in this time span. Based on traditional archival research and also including a finely detailed interpretation of an 18th century Quapaws painted buffalo robe currently at Musee de l'Homme in Paris, The Rumble Of A Distant Drum is an elegantly written scholarly interpretive summary of Quapaw culture and history as viewed through European sources. Arnold portrays the Quapaws as rational economic actors, not stereotypic noble savages. Carefully examining all available preconceptions, Arnold posits nothing without solid foundation. He concludes that this was a biracial interrelationship of its time characterized by balance and respect despite heavy population losses (Indian) due to disease and historic racist tendencies of the Europeans. The Rumble Of A Distant Drum is a fascinating book to read as well as a great contribution to this period of Native American studies. Students of anthropology, early American art, and history of this area will be intrigued.

Nancy Lorraine, Reviewer

Judge Arnold has once again illuminated the record on colonial history in the Louisiana Territory, specifically in Arkansas. In this work , he skillfully outlines the precarious balance between life and death at Arkansas Post, the remote French, then Spanish, then American garrision above the mouth of the Arkansas River as it enters the Mississippi.

The territorial commandant of the Post is a drop of colonial authority in vast ocean of Indians and unruly hunters and trappers. His ability to govern was primarily based on the annual "present" to the Quapaw Indians. This annual gift of needed gunpowder, blankets and, more often than not, rum, was critical to annual relations. A close second was a culture of routinue intermarriage of the French trappers and hunters and their Quapaw neighbors.

A second theme in the work revolves around the relationships between the colonial powers of England, France and Spain with the Quapaws, as well as other tribes. The Quapaws were decidedly francophiles and disliked the handoff of Louisiana to Spain. Therefore, the Spanish Governor in New Orleans continued to employee principally French commnadants for his Arkansas Post.

The Quapaws were in constant struggle against their foe, the Chickasaws, who lived across the Mississippi River. Backed by the British, the Chickasaws led frequent raids into Arkansas.

The book is well written, enlightening and entertaining for the serious academic and the history loving reader alike. It is well documented and is the result of significant research of orginal French and Spanish colonial archives.

I have used several differnt travel guide book, and have found the AAA Essential series to be the best. This book is accurate in the best places to see. It also has the things to do to see the local culture, and explains when places are open and closed. It is also lightweight and slim, so it is easy to carry along anywhere.

Bernanos is a novelist of the most dangerous sort--he strikes directly at your mind and heart and makes you THINK! A seriously excellent book.

This is a wonderful, expositional commentary on the text of the Gospel of Matthew. What sets this work apart from nearly everything else available is Morris' determination to exposit what Matthew has actually said and is trying to tell us, rather than to argue a new view on the whole Gospel, or interact with critical theories that most readers have never heard of (and many of which have either faded away or are in the process). This is a commentary every person in the church can access and appreciate. Morris wears his considerable learning lightly, so we get a lively interaction with the gospel itself, which cannot help but pay rich spiritual dividends for us all. Having used several available Evangelical commentaries, I am convinced that Morris is the best overall. It is not as scholarly as Carson, but it not as dry either. It is not as insightful as Blomberg in some places, but it is much fuller so that you really get feel for what Matthew is trying to say. I am probably biased since I am a fan of nearly all of Morris' work, but this is the first place I turn when preparing to preach or teach from Matthew.

This is a great commentary. Dr. Morris spends most of his time explaining the text as it has come to us. Understand that this is not a critical commentary. Morris makes this clear in the introduction. If you are looking for a technical or critical commentary on Matthew, try D.A. Carson (EBC) and/or Davies three volume work (ICC). If, however, you want a commentary on Matthew that reverently deals with the text and sets forth clear and cogent explanation, then you should add this to your shelf. It provides tremendous help in sermon preparation. Morris is a dependable exegete who provides much help with the text of Matthew.

Leon Morris, an Anglican Theologian, has written a number of works that are outstanding. This is one of them. I was in need of a substantive commentary on Matthew, and am pleased to now have one! Morris' intention is to understand the meaning of the text, and the theology of Matthew, rather than to debate text critical issues endlessly. This commentary is very thorough and would be an excellent resource for pastors in their preaching ministry, and those interested in devotional studies. The extensive footnotes and references to other works would meet the need of those interested in contemporary research on this important gospel. Much recommended!

My disappointment with "Songs In Ordinary Time" began with the first chapter. Though the initial prose was beautifully executed, it offered no clue to its purpose or eventual meaning. After several chapters, the loose ends were twisted together a bit, but I had an irritating feeling that I must have missed something in the first reading; that feeling wasn't compelling enough for me to read the first chapters over.

Every time I set down the book, I vowed not to return to it. I eventually picked it up, each time hoping to discover why this book received any acclaim what-so-ever. And each time, I struggled for the next page and a half to piece together the new chapter and new character.

Mary McGarry Morris has a gift for creating believable characters with accurate, realistic psychological profiles. She has an potent precision of perception in regards to human motivations and justifications. But, I didn't feel as if she created a story set in a small town. She created a metropolis of character sketches with no plot, no significant purpose and no emotion. I felt no positive or negative emotional attachment to any of the characters while reading the book. I was given no reason to care for the Fermoyle family nor did I particularly fear or dislike the antagonist, Duvall. I felt the characters were trapped in a static but realistic photograph while I longed to behold a moving, breathing body that could whisper in my ear.

For those who believe that the jumbled, dragging and confusing construction of the plot is a sign of "heavy and deep" literary material, I thoroughly disagree. Readers should not have to suffer to find meaning in a book. I have read a great deal of literature lately dealing with poverty, destitution, and unfortunate family situations. When I compare "Songs" to the exquisite clarity of books like "The Big Rock Candy Mountain" by Wallace Stegner and "Angela's Ashes" by Frank McCourt, I can't help but feel I was cheated in wasting my time on the book's 740 pages. Classics in literature like "Mountain" and "Ashes" enlighten, illuminate or edify the reader. "Songs in Ordinary Times" is far from a literary classic. It led me down a path of detached scenery and disappointing turns with too many detours that led nowhere.

I am baffled by the bad reviews I've read for this book. I have read many of the Oprah books, and this is the first one that felt like true literature and not a Harlequin romance. Yes, it is long. Yes, it can be depressing. Yes, it can be graphic. But so can life! Get over yourselves, people!

The characters were so real and clearly defined that, at various points in the book, I loved and hated them all. They had real problems and afflictions that were accurately portrayed by the author. Sometimes they made good choices and sometimes they made bad ones -- no one was a victim. I had to keep reminding myself that the story took place in Vermont, because I felt this book belonged in the Southern Lit course I took in college.

If you want a "happily ever after" book where nothing bad happens to anyone, this is not the book for you. If you want a story where complex characters experience the consequences -- both good and bad -- of their choices, then buy this book. I found it engrossing and hard to put down.

If you can get through the first 150 pages, you'll be happy you did. With a slow start, that's when the story really starts to pick up & you start to remember the characters, there's a lot of them! I agree with an earlier reviewer in that there were too many sub-plots & characters.
I did end up liking the book, and I was VERY close to putting it down & not finishing it. I am glad I stuck it out.
The characters are memorable. Their plights, long & hard.
You will cringe with them when things go wrong. It's a story that is so believable it feels real. I see why Oprah picked it.
Just remember, there are many books that start off slow, but they don't always have such a rewarding ending.