Author Hossack now has four books in print; every one an interesting look into a different and fascinating life. This one was her first book. These true stories from the life of Joei Carlton Hossack show a woman of intellect, heart, and courage. She shares her intimate thoughts and feelings of joy and pain and she will leave you changed forever at the conclusion. Joei is also a skilled and sought-after lecturer whose tales of her world travels have edified thousands. The highest compliment I can give to Joei Carlton Hossack is that she makes you want to be more like her.

I was browsing and happened along this book at a local bookstore and it looked intriguing. From the moment I sat down and entered into Joei and Paul's travel across Europe, I felt like I was there with them each step of the way. What a fascinating look into travelling the countries of Europe (and some in Canada and the US)! As we were introduced to the people met and made friends with along the way, the writer made one reading feel as they, too, had meet the acquaintances! I chuckled with them, I travelled along with them and I cried with Joei at the end of the book.

This is well worth the adventure into reading and exploring other lands (not in the least textbook dry). Have the Posh Puffs (tissues) on standby!

Two thumbs up to Joei Hassock on her writing endeavor!

Everyone's Dream Everyone's Nightmare starts with Joei giving up her wool shop and husband Paul giving notice to his employer. They sale their house and catch a plane to London where they buy a motorhome. As Joei's story unfolds you will feel like you are traveling with her and Paul through Europe, the U.S., Canada and Europe again. Enjoy the adventure, sights and strangers that quickly become friends. Then tragedy strikes, leaving Joei all alone in a foreign country. A must read.

The authors has painstakingly research an excellent source for those intersted in the complex issues of the modern Northern irish conflict. One can learn from a concise description form different political and culture views to internal and external causalities. Even if one has no prior knowledge of the conflict or a grasp of political and social pschological theories, the authors explains the concept in a very understandable manner.

At first Explaining Northern Ireland appears as a 'long read'. But once you start to read you'll become amazed at the details that is the Nothern Irish conflict. The authors detail the major points of view from the major political parties/influnce and the internal and external causes of the the current conflict.

Even though the book was published in 1995, it is a very good resource for anyone interested in international relations and ethino-conflicts.

For anyone with a basic knowledge of Northern Ireland looking to delve deeper into the causes of the Troubles, McGarry and O'Leary's masterpiece is the perfect place to start. In clear, well-organized chapters, the two political scientists outline the arguments, philosophies and proposals of all sides of the conflict, nationalist as well as unionist. They also explore the religious and economic facets of the Troubles, and in doing so debunk the myths that Northern Ireland is ravaged by easily-explainable theological or class divisions.

The greatest strength of the book, however, is its use of comparative political analysis to illuminate features of Northern Ireland's situation. By comparing the region to places such as the United States, South Africa, Belgium, and Israel, McGarry and O'Leary demonstrate to the reader that the Troubles, while unique in many ways, also follow trends found in conflicts elsewhere.

Though the Good Friday Agreement and subsequent establishment of a Northern Ireland parliament render the authors' conclusions a bit obsolete, the book remains vital reading. It is perhaps the only political science text available on Northern Ireland which tackles all the issues with remarable clarity, even-handedness, and insight.

Just returned from a 10 day trip to London and Paris, these guide books were FANTASTIC! Small enough to fit in a pocket or bag, PACKED with info on Underground/Metro, places to eat, places to visit. Brought along other guides, but ended up leaving them in the room, these books had it ALL!

During a study abroad with 15 other students over ten weeks, this travel guide was indispensable and doesn't feel like a brick in your bag! The concise paragraphs and color photos are perfect for the traveler who wants to experience London rather than just read pages and pages of guide book material. People with other guide books were borrowing this one to figure out the top things to do (rather than sift through too much information in theirs).

I bought this book before visiting London for the first time. I liked the size and the way the book was set up. A few months later I moved to London to study, and this book has been indispensable. It has all the information about the city, food, hotels, markets, museums, etc. without being too big. Its a great size, its light and fits into my bag easily; I take it everywhere. The maps are inside the front and back covers so they're easily accessible. I would highly recommend it, and I plan on getting others in the series.

Brilliant study about Montenegro and its relationship with Austria-Hungary but also with Russia and Balkan countries, especially Serbia. This excelent book is based on critically confirmed facts and scientific knowledge. Professor Treadway stresses eternal wish of Montenegrins and their king Nicholas I Petrovic Njegos to restore medieval Serb Empire of Dusan Nemanjic: "Ambitious for his dynasty as well as his country and incited by the nationalism of his people, Nicholas dreamed of uniting all Serbs under his aegis and sitting upon Dusan's throne in Prizren" [page 201] I recommend this book to everybody who cares for knowledge.

I was lucky enough to have been a student of Dr. Treadway at the University of Richmond. This book was on the reading list for his class European Diplomacy from Bismarck to Hitler. Treadway's intense teaching style as well as his insightful sense of humor are seen in this work. The events leading up to World War I were both complicated, and filled with lots of "what if's..." Treadway concerns himself with the "Powder Keg" of Europe, the Balkans, and presents a unique and facinating overview of the events surrounding the Annexation Crisis, the Scutari Crisis, the two Balkan Wars, as well as the history of Montenegrin relations with Austria-Hungary, Russia, Turkey, and other Great Powers. How did this small country with virtually no resources come to play such a large role in European diplomacy and politics? Treadway answers this question, making his way to June 28th, 1914 and the assassination of Francis Ferdinand in Sarajevo at the hand of Mlada Bosnia. Anyone interested in the causes of World War I would be interested in this book, moreso because it is written from the perspective of "the mouse that roared," the small country of Montenegro.

Treadway has been extremely succesful in writing the dramatic history of Montenegro, its smart king and its brave people. After reading this fine historybook on the "black mountains" the reader will better understand the current trouble on the Balkans. Treadway describes in a detailed way why the two Balkan wars have taken place and what has been the political and geographical outcome of it. The Austrian-Hungarian influence on the European continent at that time as well as the Russian influence makes one see how history repeats itself today. For the current student on Balkan history, for the student on politics in the Balkan and for people who are interested in Montenegrin history this book is an absolute must! Highly recommended

This book was sent as a gift last summer before three of my friends and I went to Paris last fall. It was one of the most helpful, concise tools for selecting eating places in Paris. It is so well organized, fits in one's handbag, and was helpful in selecting eating places that didn't "bust the budget" but were delightful. I think it is a must for the Paris traveler of many times(like me) or the first time visitor. Dom't leave home without it!

An accurate assessment of many Paris bistros and small restaurants throughout the city. Amusing personal anecdotes and helpful hints on places to dine in all arrondissements drawn from years of experience. This guide is essential planning for the first-time as well as the seasoned traveler.

This guide is essential for all those traveling to Paris. I love that you can pick restaurants based on location or rating. Additionally, the essays describing the authors' trips were enjoyable to read. I found the ratings to be consistent and easy to follow, and would recommend this book to anyone planning a trip!

I would not disagree with the other reviewers on the importance of this book. But as a professional medieval historian, I found this book to be slow and difficult, so I feel I should warn other readers that this is not a sprightly guide to medieval institutional history, but a heavily argumentative one.

Readers interested in Reynolds' point of view might want to look first at her earlier book, *Kingdoms and Communities in Western Europe 900-1300.* If you really like *Kingdoms and Communities* you might be ready for *Fiefs and Vassals.*

It was time to destroy the Marxist view-point or at least to give a chance to the opposite side. A lot of medieval-history textbooks, from the last decades, have a narrow-minded, simple, rejective attitude when they talked about the society of the Early Middle Ages, especially about the ninth and tenth centuries, the so called "Dark Ages". Though the Western European historians think that they aren't communist historians, in fact sometimes they have a more Marxist viewpoint of the Middle Ages than their colleagues from the former communist countries. The author says and proves that the society in the Middle Ages was very complex, dynamic, flexible and vivid. It was a society without any abstract authorities but with a lot of natural and personal links. It is really a reinterpretation of the 'orthodox' notions like feudalism, fief, vassal etc. Though the book has a very hard subject it's readable and easy to understand. Because the society and metality of those centuries weren't Marxist at all it's very reasonable to explain them without narrow-minded Marxist notions. In a very positive way this is a non-Marxist and I can say an anti-Marxist book. It's a great, not only for historians. Really worth reading!

Susan Reynolds completes the quiet revolution begun by Marc Bloch with the appearance of Feudal Society in the 1930s-- though arguably it can be traced back to Ferdinand Flach at the turn of the century. Bloch painted a complex and nuanced portrait of medieval society in which feudal relations played but a part. The program of study outlined by Bloch has dominated medieval studies until today. More importantly, he decentered feudalism from analysis of medieval society.

George Duby in his study of the Maconnais played the role of Kepler to Bloch's Copernicus. Duby focused his attention on a small geographical region within the heartland of so-called classical feudalism. Though the Maconnais did not conform to feudal models, Duby modestly suggested that more regional studies needed to be done. He hinted that a great deal of variation was to be expected. Since Duby, medievalists have taken up the micro approach while embracing an ever wider range of social activity.

By the 1970s, feudalism had, by and large, disappeared from scholarly discorse, but, pardoxically, not from textbooks or the classroom. It was only a matter of time before someone pointed this out. In a fameous AHR article EAR Brown lamented this state of affairs. But medievalists are a conservative lot and continued working as before. This is where Reynolds comes in.

Reynolds asks a simple question: whence feudalism? The answer is complex; but the starting point was the 12th century Lombard [Italy] compilation Libri feodorum. The Book of Fiefs was a highly tendentious work that represented one side in a difficult and emotional dispute. It was hardly of pan-European significance. Medieval people, moreover, did not use the term feudalism, a neologism of the Enlightenment era. The Libri first came into French use-- and from there European wide use-- in the 16th century when a now professional judiciary used it to further the systemizing and centralizing goals of the monarchy. And once adopting the Libri as academic law, European scholars began imposing its categories on the medieval past. Reynolds spends the bulk of book showing just how varied and unstable the medieval terms and practices ossified in the Libri were over space and time. It is a fascinating tale expertly handeled by Reynolds. Feudalism is finally dead thanks to this book. I cannot recommend it too strongly.

this is with no doubt the best book i have ever read , it is filled with so many mixed emotions and the way it is seen through the eyes of a dog makes it ever more interesting . the feelings that you feel when you read it are a mixture of sadness , joy and wonder . you will never know what is comeing next and that just makes you want to read it even more . belive me when i say this is the best book you could ever get

Branford has crafted a powerful piece of historical fiction about fourteenth century England and has done so in a manner that honors the Young Adult audience's often ignored right to realistic, unromantic history. Her narrator, a wise, nameless hound is endearing but never cute. Through her eyes we witness the brutality and social upheaval of the late Middle Ages. This sage old dog, so unlike the traditional, overwrought animal narrator, provides a sense of detachment from events like the Wat Taylor rebellion that allows us to feel the peasant's righteousness as well as to cringe at their senseless mob violence. Above all, get ready to breath this one in. Fire, Bed & Bone is so splendidly redolent with the real, visceral scents of the age that you will inhale it as much as you read it.

What a brilliant book! This is set at the time of the 1381 Peasants' Revolt in England, and it shows the causes and events and results of that social upheaval in a way that is quite sympathetic to the peasants' side of the story without glossing over the mob violence that was involved. The book manages to be dense with factual information without being boring or preachy. However, the narrator is a dog -- a dog accustomed to a life of good care, with the comfort of the fire, a bed, and an occasional bone shared from the meager resources of its owners. And the dog tells us not only about the impact of social unrest on the people but also on their animals. The reading level is suitable for average fifth graders, but the issues are powerful and complex enough to interest older students of any reading level. This is a wonderful narrative of human events from an animal's perspective and should be placed along the classics of this genre.

This is a beautful book with photos of gorgeous countryside. Owen Franken has a keen eye for accentuating the aesthetics in an already stunning environment.

This fabulous book absolutely transported me! The incredible text beautifully complements the photos. You can almost smell the thyme and feel the soft sea breezes... A fantastic book!

a delightful little book of pretty photos of provence.a very nice memory for those who forgot their camera and a nice source book for those who want to return to provence and see place and things one might have missed.

I call this book "foundational" because it is building a foundation for gay scholars of the future: a foundation of hard historical fact.

As other reviewers have noted, the author carefully combed the records of the Florentine Office of the Night. The Office of the Night was a special police force designed to combat male love. Simply (!) counting up the number of men detained by the Office of the Night and comparing them with the population of the town, the author establishes the fact that over half the male population had fallen into the hands of the Office of the Night. (Not, as one reviewer mistakenly claimed, that over half of the men in Florence had had sex with another male at least one time. That's way wide of the mark!)

If over half of the male inhabitants of Renaissance Florence had fallen into difficulties with this special police force, logic suggests that others escaped without a visit from the police. That is to say, the number of men interested in male love is most likely under-represented by these statistics. And of course (as is shown many times in the book) there were some gay men who were notorious, and committed many "offenses," before coming to the notice of the police.

To say the same thing in another way, the data from this book confirms the data from Tokugawa Japan, as well as the data from ancient Greece.

This kind of research is invaluable to scholars who want to understand human nature.

Highest recommendation!

Michael Rocke's tome on male culture and sexuality in Renaissance Florence is a tremendous work that provides exceptional insight into male sexuality. After reading this, only the most obdurate student of gay life and history could fail to attain a more significant understanding of the present-day forces that seek to quash gays and their efforts for equality under the law. Rocke's careful research of 15th- and 16th-century documents unequivocably shows that if not most, quite nearly a mjority of Florentine males at the time had sex at least once with another male. The significance of such a finding should not be missed.

Present day gays roll their eyes whenever they encounter the supposition that a person can "be made gay" or "converted" to being gay because of the firm belief that one's sexuality is predominantly innate. But after reading Rocke's book, one can't help but see how males that today would undoubtedly be identified as heterosexual had freely enjoyed sex with other males. The significance of this, however, should not be interpreted to mean that one's sexuality is entirely a choice. It does, however, provide an understanding of why some homophobes fear gays.

The Dominican cleric Savonarola's rhetoric in the war he waged against sodomy in Florence provides a historical background as well for understanding the position of today's Religious Right and its stance against gays. Savonarola figures heavily in Rocke's book and the author provides wonderful detail on the political machinations of the time, a politic that essentially recognized the need to publicly take a stand against sodomy, but in practicality often lacked the nerve to do what was necessary to rid the city of "this vice."

Anyone interested in the history surrounding gays and homosexuality is strongly urged to add this title to their list.

I won't hide my praise; this book is a masterpiece in the study of male-male sexuality in the Renaissance. Finally, due to some historically fortuitous and unfortunately rare records, some one has provided firm demographic evidence on the phenomenon in one major city. These demographics settle a number of thorny questions that have plagued the field since its inception. Over two-thirds the male population of Renaissance Florence was involved in pederasty. We are not dealing with a small but relatively free homosexual minority; instead, the average Florentine Renaissance male, regardless of sexual orientation, engaged in some form of sex with males. This book is essential not only to those interested in the Renaissance but also to all interested in ancient (Western) history. Those interested in ancient Greece and Rome in particular will be fascinated to learn that Greek practices are still very much alive in Renaissance Italy, over two-thousand years later. The book casts serious doubt on the notion that a small, aritocratic minority practiced pederasty in Classical Antiquity. Rocke firmly establishes that male pederastic sex and relationships in Renaissance Florence were embedded in the broader contexts of male culture and sociality, class, retribution, and politics. His book is an additional verification of the anthropological theory that most pre-industrial societies accepted male pederasty as a valid expression of a man's sexual desires, though only ancient Greece and Rome seem to have so publicly lauded the practice in their art, literature, and philosophy.

Five Stars or Four Stars - a difficult choice. WALLS OF WAR is indeed a classic, and possibly this book shall be also. Like WALLS OF WAR, FORTRESS EUROPE contains some inaccurracies. The most outstanding problem is the lack of photos and what appears to be missing information on some of the drawings. A problem is that many fine descriptions of fortifications are not accompanied by illustrative material. At 400 pages I do not know where they would put addditional material with what seems to be over 150 oustanding illustrations already included. On the plus side, which far outweighs the problems, in addition to all the information on such a large number of fortifications presented the Introduction includes an Internet site address. On this site is a link to an Update Page where information is added and/or corrected, and on the other pages of this site are links to Maginot, Czech, Vallo Alpino, and other fortification pages which include many colorful illustrations of items covered in FORTRESS EUROPE. These internet pages compensate for the missing illustrations. The only problem is that some of us have limited internet access and there are hours of material to view. The site even has a FORUM where readers can submit questions for more information on these fortifications. This site the FORTRESS EUROPE book is linked to turns this work into a truly interactive work. The 5 Star rating is based on the positive internet support this book features. ---H.Zarska

A good fortification book consists of a good balance of text, photos and drawings. Fortress Europe is an excellent fortification book. The text, photos, and superb drawings describe not only well known WWII fortifications such as the Maginot Line and Atlanticwall, but the more obscure fortifications of WWII Europe, such as the Soviet Molotov and Stalin lines, the Greek Metaxas line, and Yugoslavian fortifications. In many cases this is the first English language technical description ever given of these fortifications. This is a must have for anyone interested in WWII fortifications.

This book, like Mallory and Ottars WALLS OF WAR is destined to become a classic on the fortifications of World War II. It covers many defenses I have never even heard of. The drawings are magnificent. On the downside I have noticed some minor errors which are either from the authors or the publisher, but this does not detract from this work. The only thing that might be missing is more illustrations and a little more coverage of the Balkans and Iberia. Still I have seen nothing to compare to it and we may only hope this leads to more books on that go into greater depth on some of the defensive systems covered in this work. --Doug Dallas