Just finished reading this short but fairly in depth book about Robespierre. If you have knowledge of the classics (Roman and Greek) then this book is for you. The author stresses how Robespierre was heavily influenced by the studies he had done of Roman and Greek history (as where many politicians during the Renaissance). he does quote alot of Robespierre's speeches and if you don't have knowledge or interest in the classics, you may not enjoy it as much as I did.
The book is, in my opinion, fairly balanced but the author seems to be an admirer of Robespierre...he sort of defends the "Terreur" and Robespierre's use of the guillotine during the later par tof the French Revolution. I read it in French, not sure if it exists in English.

Loved it. I was glad I got the 5 in one book instead of reading each one separately. This allowed me to read the story from start to finish. I really enjoyed it. As with all Salvatore books the world is well described and the characters well flushed out. the main character, Cadderly is a different type of hero. Not a swashbuckler, but a man of faith. I grew attached to him. If you like Forgotten realms, you will like this.

I may be the only Tolkien fan who didn't "get" the Silmarillion. A little too long in some parts, a bit confusing in others. It is interesting to read because it gives you decent background on the world of the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings but not a stand alone novel. If you are new to Tolkien, start with the Hobbit, then Lord of the Rings and, if you love Tolkien's world, read the Silmarillion.

What else to say. The classic of all Fantasy novels. Read it, enter into the Tolkien world and enjoy.

The Thomas Covenant books have become fantasy classics. They are written masterfully but the "hero", is so unlikable you actually dislike yourself for liking the books.
In any case, the plot is similar to the John Carter Warlord of Mars series, our "hero" gets transported to a magical land where he must become a hero. The magical land is very interesting but this book is rather "dark" and borderline depressing. Read it if you dare.

Very interesting and easy to read. Scholars of American history will find the way Ellis explains the debates between the major founding fathers very interesting and more casual readers of history will find the overview he gives of the key players in the American revolution and creation of the USA very interesting and entertaining.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It gives us the history of the color Blue and how it became an accepted color in clothing, flags etc.
One wouldn't think that colors had a history but Pastoureau proves that yes indeed the do. Starting with ancient Romans (who incidentally thought blue was a barbarian color), moving up through modern days we get to see how blue transformed into one of the most popular western colors today. AThe book is short and it makes for a nice quick, interesting read.

I enjoyed reading Stacey's Black Monastery. Being a fan of both medieval historical fiction and fantasy, I think he did a great job of creating a great setting with lots of detail and adding just enough "magic" to be believable. Nice mix of Viking, Frank and Middle Age Arab cultures mixed in, very good description of the fighting and a monster that truly was evil. This book is very dark, however, without throwing out a spoiler, the good guys win but not until everyone else is butchered. My only negative comment is that I found the story to be rather short and that the author may have filled it in space with a lot of sometimes unneeded details. A little too long for a short story but a little too short for a novel. Still, a thoroughly enjoyable read.

Kitchen and restaurant books now seem to be a dime a dozen but this is one of the originals that started the trend.

Having worked in restaurants all through high-school and college, this book really entertained me. I have experienced similar stories as he describes and I think Bourdain really catches the ambiance in a restaurant kitchen.

I don't know if someone who doesn't have restaurant experienc ewould like it or not but I loved it.

Another great Drizzt book. As always, good action and a nice mix of characters coming in and out of the story.

Salvatore once again puts the main character, Drizzt, and his friends in an impossible situation but then comes up with a great resolution to the problem. While some Drizzt books can be read as stand alone, this one needs some background. I wouldn't suggest it if you haven't read the other three in this series. It may be confusing.

Didn't really like the "long sleep" at the end of thebook. Kinda felt like it was too easy of a way for Drizzt et al. to resolve some of the conflicts they have but I guess, in order to move on, Salvatore had to tie up loose ends. This one definitely leaves you wanting to read the next one...

Great historical book about humankind's history of fishing Cod. It takes us from Vikings, through the middle Ages in Europe to early North American Settlers up to present day. It shows how much of Northern Europe and North American development and wealth was initially founded on the Cod industry. Also goes into today's overfishing of Cod in New England and political battles over North Atlantic Cod fishing rights. If you like history this book is great.

One of my favorite Kurlansky books. The author went through some old archives of a government sponsored project right before World War II broke out. Writers from all over the USA were commissioned to collect recipes and write descriptive articles on how people in different regions cooked food; what ingredients they used, what special traditions they had. Because of WWII, the project was stopped and most of the articles were never printed. Kurlansky basically edits and summarizes some of the articles and even includes recipes in the book. As the title indicates, you discover a whole new food world before frozen food and fresh vegetables from other countries could be found everywhere...some people in the older generation will probably be nostalgicand the younger generation inspired to think more about what and how they eat. It definitely inspired me to cook some of the older recipes.

Kurlansky wrote "Salt" well. I would have given it four stars but at times I feel as if he was a bit repetitive in his descriptions. Anyway, his book goes through the history of humankind's' use of salt and how that salt use created certain cities and trade routes. Never realized how important salt was. In history it has led to war, trading rivalries and empires and city-states flourished because of salt production. All in all a very interesting book. If you like world history this book is for you as it hits pretty much every continent.

I liked the book, and usually give salvatore 4 stars but this time I am only going with three. While I loved the last half of the book, especially the meeting in Guantlgrym between all the different opposing forces. The first half, however, was kinda boring. To much repetition about Drizzt's feelings of jealousy towards Artemis and Dahlia...yaa, we got it, we also got that the Sword was trying to get him to kill Entreri. The trip to get to Guantlgrym was little too long. While I usually like Salvatore's fight scenes, this book had a little to many. As if he was filling up space to get to the final, interesting part of the book.
That being said, I am still hooked, read it with pleasure and already bought book four of the Neverwinter Series.

*Spoiler* So hard to judge this book. It is as well written and as captivating as any of Salvatore's Drizzt books. I guess my personal attachment to Drizzts companions has clouded my objectivity. I didn't like having Bruneor die nor realizing that Cattie-Brie and Regis were gone for good. Thus I didn't like the story. I actually put down Salavatore for a while before being able to read the next in the series. Salvatore can do whatever he likes with his characters but it would have been nice to have them along a little longer...

Michener really rocks. He must do an unimaginable amount of research for his books (I would assume he has a staff to help him) and, even though the Covenant is VERY long, you are still sad when it is finished. He writes the history of South Africa through different chapters corresponding to different time periods with extremely interesting characters. When he gets to the more modern times, he shows us South Africa mostly through the eyes of the Afrikaans which I found very interesting. He in NO way defends Apartheid but you can get an idea of how it came about. If you like long, well written, historical fiction, then this book is for you.

Good book. I have read quite a few of Piers Anthony's Xanth series books and this is the first. Anthony has created a world were everyone has a magical power that manifests itself around the time of puberty. Sometimes they are powerful magic (transforming things) and sometimes not powerful (turning things different colors). In any case, the world is very interesting and I liked the characters. I initially read them when I was young (middle school) and loved them. Re-read the first few and liked them a lot but didn't "love" them. As an adult read, I give them three stars. Probably four stars for a younger audience.

Very good book. I read this while living in the Caribbean. Even if I hadn't known the history of the region, it is a great novel. The book is made of chapters, each corresponding to a different ages. It starts with times before European colonizers and works its way up to present day. Each chapter has great characters and introduces you to a different culture that influenced the Caribbean (Native-Americans, Spanish, French, English, Danish, American...). Each chapter is so interesting that they could all be turned into their own full-length book. A long book but well worth the time investment.

Not normally a big horror fan but I remember reading this as a kid and enjoying it. Went back a couple fo months ago and re-read it. Stephen King did a great job. Took a nice Saint Bernard and made it into a horror monster. Good suspense, scenes that actually scare you as a reader, if you are into horror, there is a reason King is so popular, he writes very well!

The second in the Wang series. See my review for the "Portes d'Occident." These two books are probably my favorite sci-fi novels of all time.If you can read French, Russian, Italian or a few other european languages then definitely read this two book series. Hopefully they will be published into English one day.

Awesome, awesome, awesome. The author wrote in French and unfortuantely I don't think the books have been published in English (other languages yes). If you read French and like dystopian future sci-fi books you will love this one. The world has been ravaged except for Western Europe and North America which both live peacefully behind a magnetic shield that protected them from a nuclear war. Every year some refugees from Asia are allowed into Europe. Some are used for organ transplants and the others stage a real war that Europeans can watch (kinda like Running Man or Hunger Games). The main character, Wang, enters into France and becomes a leader in the war games before deciding to try to free the refugee slaves and open up the magnetic wall for good.
My explanation doesn't do the story justice but it, and the second in the series, really are sweetness!

Bought this book for my son (8 years old). He really enjoys it. It includes most of the classic Greek myths (Pandora, Hercules, King Midas,Perseus etc). The stories are shortened quite a bit and written in kid friendly language. Great for beginner readers but would probably be less interesting once a child is 10-11 years old. Also has some simple but nice pictures.

Received the french version of the graphic novel version of The Hobbit as a gift. It is awesome. Great graphics and almost none of the story is left out. The paper is thick and glossy and the cover very nice. My eight year old son also loves it. Truly a book for the whole family.

I am a Salavatore fan and, as the others in the various Drizzt series, I really enjoyed this book. I was crushed when, in the preceding books, all of Drizzt's original friends died. It took me a while to get over Bruenor's death in Gauntlgrym and I actually stopped reading Salvatore for a little while.

This book was great and I have even become attached to Drizzt's new "partner" Dahlia. The only thing I don't like is Salvatore's internal monologue inside Drizzt's head. Each book they seem to be more and more heavy and I have gotten to the point where I only skim them rapidly. Instead of adding anything to the Drizzt's character, they seem more like a way for Salvatore to do some sort of self-analysis at getting older...yup, it happens to all of us around middle-age but I would prefer if he kept it out of the books.

Still, the book gets a solid four stars from me.

I am the author of The Forging and I really enjoyed writing it and think it came out very well.

If you like what I call "old school" fantasy, then you should enjoy this book. It is a story of a dwarf, a half-orc, a magician with elven blood and a thief who are following a map to a forgotten city. My writing is heavily influenced by role playing games and authors such as Tolkien, R.A. Salvatore, Terry Brooks and Piers Anthony.

There are some battle scenes in the book, a lot of magic and you will be introduced to a variety of mythical creatures.

If you do read it, I hope you will let me know what you think. I would be happy to send you the electronic version.

I really enjoy Horowitz' books. Having grown up in the South, but never truly having understood the attraction many southerners have for the Civil War, Horowitz wrote an awesome, sometimes funny, and especially interesting accounting of southerners' passion for the Civil War. Horowitz goes all the way into his research and even joins a group of Civil War reenactors.

Very interesting account of the various European groups that came and went in the Americas. Horowitz goes from place telling stories of Vikings, Conquistadors, French and English in a dramatic, sometimes sad (he doesn't hide massacres against the Indians) and always interesting way.