Oh my goodness .. if you've been 'enamored' of Gertrude & Alice for years & years, or are just discovering them .. this is THE story of their lives together. Grab this book before it goes out of print again !!

I am not a scholar and I am not sure that I would have the patience to read Gertrude "dans le texte". Yet I have a dilettant interest in these women of the first half of this century who seemed to have had a strong influence on the Arts and Litterature (Stein/Toklas, Cones, Sitwells...). I picked up this book by chance off the bookselves of my friends -- Liz and Jeff -- a rainy day by the Delaware River. I not only finished it off but enjoyed it tremenduously. I found the writting interesting, detailled (what a treat to get so many details of that era) and refreshing by its ease of access. Do read this book -- I am now onto other Stein/Toklas books (most certainly Alice's recipes).

One of the best dual-bios of these two ladies (and I've read this book both in German and English.) This book makes both of them very real, moving them beyond the literary/lesbian icons that they've become in the last 60+ years. Read this in conjunction with James Mellow's CHARMED CIRCLE and you'll be hooked both on Gertrude and Alice and the artistic era between the two World Wars!

You don't need a roommate to share the cost of travel when you can stay in a delightful Paris hotel for just $50 per night, with a private bath. Margo Classe does our homework for us, finding the little gems that even travel agents don't know about. These are small, Mom & Pop places that are not even listed on the Internet. This book lists the charming, affordable hotels in cities throughout France. Each listing perfectly describes the place in great detail, giving contact info. Her other books do the same for Spain, Italy and Britain & Ireland. If only her books covered the world!

This is the best book I've ever used for finding hotels in Paris and Mont-St. Michel. The rooms were great, clean, well located, and the detailed descriptions of each hotel and best rooms were greatly appreciated and right on the money.

I am the author of Eating & Drinking in France and I have used all of Margo Classe's guides, including Hello France! This guide is thorough and the author adds a personal touch when she describes in detail each hotel she has visited. Hello France! is a must for the independent, budget traveler.

it isn't really like that. it's not just some disconcerting look into the underground of the east village full of drugs and sex and blah blah blah -- that's every other review. what's actually in this book is centred more around style than substance. ms. listfield writes powerfully, artistically, and honestly in these vignettes; she writes like comfort food. this is the kind of book where every line is the type of line you're prone to underlining or reading allowed to whoever will listen, the kind of sentences you want to carry along in your pocket for their brilliance. i recognised myself on every page.

all in all it's not the work of the century, but genuinely, genuintely worth the read.

... Every generation wants its twenties to be like Hemingway'stwenties in Paris, poor in pocket but rich in creative work, artist companions, great conversation and wine. Except on the lower east side of Manhattan in the 1980's, the artist part gets buried in drugs, booze, dancing 'til dawn in clubs. Love gets mangled in the partying, too. This is told brilliantly, unapologetically, in the voice of Sara who is resisting her family's call back to the suburbs, back to dependable, bland men and unexciting, secure jobs. Written in the time it portrays, just before AIDS changes everything, it is straightforward, not dripping with the irony of hindsight or regret. Above all, it is written with artistry, rendered in short cuts where every word is crafted, every word counts. It is of a particular time and place, but not dated. It is more honest than Bright Lights, Big City, more genuine than the recent retro film 200 Cigarettes.

Emily Listfield's "It Was Gonna Be Like Paris" was one of the first novels of the East Village in the days of its all-in-black post-punk art-scene glory... I first read this in the mid-1980s and I was thrilled and intrigued by the world she depicts... Listfield offers little cold vignettes of life in the punk world of artists, failed junkie musicians, and imminent violence and love... Her style is austere, cold, and clear. I was living in New Orleans when I first found this book, and I instantly gave copies to all my friends. We read it and spent a long spring and summer trying to live the novel in dance clubs and galleries in both New Orleans and Houston. The fact that this novel is out of print is a major indictment of Listfield's publishers. "It Was Gonna Be Like Paris" is a minor clasic, a small gem of a novel about a lost world and time... (Lohr Miller

If you read my review of the general Paris book, you know that I think it is the best, but the restaraunt/hotel information in the back of that book is dated, well here is the fix for that. Unfortunately I only had this book on one trip, my last, over the pond, however if you wanted to have dinner at a new and fascinating place every afternoon and night, this is what to use. My mom, an art deco fan, used this book to find the perfect restaraunt. I used it to find a restaraunt built into a 1000 year old basement, not to mention fois gras vendors! This book is worth every penny, as so much in Paris revolves around meals, and the meals and folks in the restaraunts are so interesting, you in fact, need this book. While large portions of France have lost their Catholicism, they still have one universal religion: FOOD! Pick this book up, a Bible!

I like the Knopf Guides in general for their luxurious illustrations, diagrams and their tangental information.In this guide such things as typical menus, historical data, elaborate diagrams (such as the fold out of Train Bleu) and literary references make it more than a guide indeed it properly sits on the nightstand as grist for exciting dreams of historical Parisian Gastronomy.

Richly illustrated book including descriptions of famous restaraunts as well as the history of the Paris restaurant scene.

I am leaving for France again this week and I can hardly put the book down.

What both the reviews currently featured fail to mention is that Elliott Paul has a keen eye and a keen wit. He writes with warmth and affection, but also a journalist's detachment. His writing style is in keeping with the street and the characters he brings to life so vividly. And although he is dealing with a world long gone, if you've been to Paris, even now, you'll recognise it in his pages. This book is one of the most perceptive and delightful travel books I've ever read. One example of Paul's gems: in one chapter he explains that 'Belgian pate' means pate that's half rabbit and half horse, that is, one rabbit to one horse. Several chapters later he informs us that there were no Italians in the neighbourhood since Italians and Serbs don't mix, "and when they do, the Italian has as much chance as a rabbit up against a horse in a Belgian pate" - I love that line and how it sums up so succinctly a whole array of rich rivalries.

Before getting into the body of my review, I want to clear up a fairly common misconception. The only thing that the movie, THE LAST TIME I SAW PARIS, has in common with Elliot Paul's book is that they share the same name. The movie was based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald entitled, "Babylon Revisited."

I wonder what Elliot Paul would think if he could see today's incarnation of his beloved rue de la Huchette where the action of the book is centered. Before the second World War, when Elliot made it his home, it was a poor street of "mom and pop" businesses, small apartments, a laundry that doubled as a bordello, a third class hotel or two, a few small cafes and, most of all, a place where one sat out on the stoop and visited, or debated, with his neighbors until the wee hours. Not a very high class neighborhood and certainly not a place that had any attraction for tourists.

That portion of the Left Bank that includes the rue de la Huchette is called the Latin Quarter because of its proximity to the Sorbonne University. At one time it really was a place where the students hung out, but no more. Because it has become so touristy, the students have moved their extracurricular activities a few blocks away. I get the feeling that every tourist bus passing through Paris includes in its itinerary a walk down the two or three blocks that comprise the street. Every other door leads into a small restaurant and in front of each is a hustler enticing you to come in for dinner and to have a free "aperitif." If you know where to eat, or are lucky, you can get a good, reasonably priced, meal there. The street is always lively and crowded.,

Paul's rue de la Huchette, as I described it above, was a world, or at least a war, away from what one experiences today. He became such a part of the neighborhood that he was always called on to arbitrate neighborhood disputes. One young girl, Hyacinthe, fell in love with him while she was still a pre-teen, wrote him very adult sounding love letters, and even as an adult still adored him.

He describes a scene when, after a long absence, he returns, and, as soon as the word gets out that he's back, he finds himself the guest of honor at the party to end all parties. Everyone buys him drinks but no one allows him to reciprocate. Sometime during the celebration he passes out. The next morning, not knowing how he got there, he wakes up in one of the two front rooms in the hotel, rooms normally reserved for "couples in a hurry." Because the room was free and the gesture so generous, he doesn't complain about the bed bugs.

This wonderful street and these people that Paul loves and brings to life for us are destroyed by the Nazi occupation of Paris during WW II. The saddest moment of the book comes near the end of the war when Hyacinthe, now grown up and become a famous actress, dies as a result of asphyxiation caused by a charcoal burner that she and her mother were using to keep warm during the cold Paris winter. Her death which, like all the events in the book is a true event, is symbolic of the end of an era in Paul's life and of the life of a more innocent Paris.

I think that I might have liked Paul's rue de la Huchette better than the present one. If you read THE LAST TIME I SAW PARIS, I think that you might feel the same.

American journalist Elliot Paul remained in France after his tour of duty in World War I ended, to settle on the quaint (and now very trendy) rue de la Huchette in the shadows of Notre Dame cathedral. He fell in love with his French neighbors, their Parisian souls, and mourned the death or displacement of both in the Nazi occupation of World War II. The Last Time I Saw Paris is a poignant source for understanding why the French spirit will never be dominated or corrupted, and why this is a blessing to us all. It is a tour de force on understanding World War II through the eyes of the shopkeepers, cafe patrons, and regular folk who saw Hitler, Musilini and Franco comming, while the superpowers of the time hid their eyes in denial.

Nineteenth-Century America had its Henry Clay. His European counterpart was Georges-Eugene Haussmann. Emperor Napoleon hired Haussmann to make method out of the madness of post-Medieval Paris. Haussmann is principally responsible for the City of Light as we know it. "Today," the Baron's recent biographer stresses, "his hand is everywhere." Part of Haussmann's effort consisted of bringing pure water to Parisians. In the process he wiped out the cholera that was endemic to the City. Throughout life he modernized the ailing French infrastructure. Wherever he was posted, he brought in roads, canals, and rail lines. How odd it was that in a country so obsessed with pagentry and glory, Haussmann's funeral went by in a small church, virtually unnoticed.

This illustrated biography of Georges-Eugene Haussmann is a highly recommended pick for any who relish accounts of early Paris: The Man Who Made Paris Paris examines the life of an administrator who rebuilt Paris as a capitol "worthy of an empire". Vintage black and white photos of early Paris accompany a biographical coverage of the man who transformed the city in only seventeen years.

This book helped me understand how really Paris was before Haussman did his work. I recommend this book to any person who is interested in Paris and it's history

This is a Great Mandie Book. She has just arrived in Europe with Celia and Jonathan, the stowaway. There is a mysterious telegram waiting for Mandie at the hotel. This leads to another mystery, and three mysterious french speaking girls. The strange lady from the ship appears again. Mandie and Celia get lost in Paris, with nothing to lead the way back to the hotel but the Eifle tower. Then someone unexpected shows up... This is a very good Mandie Book which you must read. But be sure to read the books in order to understand them most.

Mandie is off on another adventure with her grandmother, her friend,and her new friend Johnathan. This book is is very good

I have read this book over and ove again.I am 11 years old and i started reading Mandie books at age 10.i have read almost them all and now i am going to buy them all when I get the money.Mrs.Leppard you cant stop writing Mandie books!it all started when mandie went to Europe and met Jonathan a very rich boy,and these people kidnap Jonathan and take him to a palace.meeting drunkards along the way,Mandie and Celia manage to get to the palace because her grandmother went to a party with senator morton.they met the girls who always talked to Jonathan in french.and they help get him out.this action packed book teaches alot about God.a lesson of forgivness,and alot of mystery!!!!!

This exciting new addition to the Alive! series takes you to the cruise ship capital of the world - in style!

"Dawn to Dusk" sections focus on the best daytime delights, such as terrific watersports, sightseeing, golf courses, beaches and fascinating museums. "After Dark" sections take you to the best nightclubs, piano bars, cocktail lounges and beach cookouts. Hundreds of places to stay and eat are profiled in detail, based on repeat visits by the authors. In-margin icons allow you to see at a glance which activities are being discussed.

"This Hunter Travel Guide stimulates readers' senses immediately with its lively description.... Fully indexed, the guide delivers an insider's view to what the authors call 'the most hospitable islands in the world.' Not a typical guide, the book is as much fun as it is resourceful, with a chatty writing style... great suggestions for sites to visit when travelers are in the mood for something unusual or spontaneous." Today's Librarian

Paris Perneter and John Bigley's Nassau & The Best Of The Bahamas Alive! provides all the destination-oriented information needed to make the best of a trip to the Bahamas, from a survey of restaurants and hot fishing holes to best places to stay, shop, and enjoy the variety of the islands. An excellent take-long tote.

Living, breathing characters wander the maze that is the Other Side of Twilight. Not without flaw, each struggles with their individual demons, and establishes their persona early on as likable or to be wary of. Yet, none is without surprises.

I felt, as I turned the pages with some trepidation, that I were right there with Steve as he agonized through the introspection and the staggering revelations forced upon him in his quest for the truth about his life. Arianne's foibles provided a realism that made her character one I could warm to. I can't wait for the sequel.

Geoffrey Parris' scrutiny of matters racially significant and spanning different cultures more than hints at his own diversity of background and knowledge. Even though he surely fictionalized much of Twilight, he had to have poured a great deal of his own experience into the creation of his characters. It worked!

Write on, Geoffrey Parris, and please be prolific!

Anyone who can successfully tie together an intriguing tale spanning the Caribbean, southern USA, and Canada deserves more than a pat on the back. Geoffrey Parris' first book is a must on this year's list of great reading and I look forward to more from this budding author.

One hesitates to classify this as a mystery thriller, yet Parris has succeeded admirably in weaving a tangled web which traps the reader into skipping work for a day to find out how it all ends. It draws heavily on the author's own tragedies and successful battle with cancer and has taught this jaded reader a thing or two along the way.

Can you beat cancer on the strength of your own willpower? Can you be proud of being the product of mixed races? Can you aspire to wealth and power from an ordinary background? Of course! All this plus a new look at psychic power is neatly woven into the plot as Steve Houston attempts to find out what really happened to his mother.

You won't regret picking up this book both for its inspiration and suspense.

The Other Side of Twilight is a great book to add to your summer reading list. I thoroughly enjoyed it and only put it down once when I had to go teach a screenwriting workshop.

Parris is new to writing, but this won't be his last book. He compels the reader to race through his story to find out what really happened to the main character's mother when he was seven years old.

The settings are so enjoyable that they act as characters in the book and offer a great escape.

The plot is tightly woven and clever and the ending is very satisfying. What more could you want?

Is Paris Burning? is one of my favorite books. It's a little like a comfort book... I love history but sometimes find reading about it a bit dull. Is Paris Burning? was very appealing from the first page. I found myself making a movie in my mind everytime I read it.

Having lost my original copy of the book, I am anxious to get a replacement for it. Though I was in hospital at the time of the events, I checked with many comrades from my unit (3rd company, 501 Regt French tanks, 2nd French Armored Division)who were interviewed by the authors in the early 60's, and they vouch for the accuracy of the account. I still see a few survivors at our yearly get-together. A must for my (or anyone's) grand children. Pres. French War Veterans, NY

This book gives a truly fascinating story of the last days of the Nazi occupation of Paris. It is an especially good read if you happen to be in Paris. I never realized until I read this book, how close Paris was to being totally destroyed by the Nazis. A very exciting, interesting book.