A fascinating biography. This book inspired the film with Liam Neeson, but is so much more than a glimpse of the incidents chronicled in the film. W.H. Murray has given a well-researched, well-documented look at highland life that enables the reader to step into the shoes (or lack thereof) of the Scottish highlander. Everything from the clan structure, rivalries, English oppression, how to carry a handful of oats dipped in a stream for daily ration; it's all there. Mr. Murray gives us very detailed information on the subtleties of the constantly changing political climate and the MacGregor's sense of injustice.

This book is a must-read for anyone with even a passing interest in Scotland, the MacGregor Clan, or Rob Roy himself.

This is a book for a scholar or a person dipping into Scottish history for the first time. An excellent book about Highlanders and there are precious few books available on the topic. The author has considered vast quanitities of sources; the only books lacking are Gaelic language sources such as those bilingual editions published by the Scottish Academic Texts Society. The author shows a broad understanding of the politics and economics of the period; what is unique is an attempt to understand Gaelic society. The "creach" or cattle raid is explained from a Highland point of view; it's a custom sanctified in the great Gaelic epic "Táin Bó Cuailgne". The format is very appealing as historical events are related to the colourful life of this one honourable man.

This is an elegantly written, thorough, balanced and fascinating account of a deservedly highly admired man.

The author provides a comprehensive historic and social background and a detailed biography. Real history, not the current hip Celtic fashion or Braveheart drivel.

I found the book moving and inspiring. A picture of an honourable, intelligent and courageous man, living his life by the laws of his time; a man who deserves to be remembered.

The film Rob Roy with Liam Neeson, runs amazingly close to this book. If you were inspired by the film, I think you will greatly enjoy this biography.

I'd also recommend John Prebble for his classic works on Culloden and Glencoe and the Highland Clearances.

This book is a trip through Roma from a pigeon's point of view. The pigeon flies around, through, over and past many of Rome's historical landmarks, and a brief section in back describes their history and significance.

I checked this out of the library to read with my 5 year old after I went to Rome last year, and bought a copy for myself, just to enjoy the pictures and the memories they bring! The Chiesa de San Ignazio (Church of St. Ignatius) is an especial favorite, as my choir performed there to a "standing room only" crowd! Quite a feat for an amateur choir on their first overseas tour!

The pen and ink sketches, the snippets of history, and the wonderful way they evoke the charisma of Rome make this a great addition to any child's or adult's library.

Share David MacAuley's obviously personal portrait of Rome. It's a portrait in the most obvious sense: lovingly detailed drawings of Rome's greatest architecture captured from MacAuley's witty and often weird perspective. But, through the drawings and the wonderful conceit, you see that this little book is also a personal exploration of a city that touches the heart.

This is the finest illustrated gift book for the Romaphiles that you love!! Get it now and make a gift to the one you love. It will be appreciated for years to come.

This was a super book!! I thought it was very exciting because I thought that Rosemary Rita was going to be stuck back in time forever. I would recommend this book to any girl who likes to read really cool books. Buy this book or you'll miss out on all the fun!!

Another incredible adventure! This one took me back to Paris, a place I truly love. Except this time, I got to travel back in time. I learned all about the World's Fair. What a fun way to share history with kids! You just can't put it down!

I liked this one even better than the first Hourglass Adventure. Rosemary Rita is awesome as she tries to capture the jewel thief. This is a very exciting book. I couldn't put it down. It made me feel like I went back in time to Paris in 1889. I think that everyone should read this book. I really loved it!!!

Do you dream of renting a car and roaming France wherever a tree-lined road takes you? Of being able to be captivated by the flowers and stones of a quiet town and wish you could stay one night? This book is the English translation of the Guide Routard, relied upon by the French for their vacations with dead-on descriptions of hotels and restaurants most of us can afford. With this book you can confidently soujourn so far off the beaten path that you may well be the only American that hotel will see this year -- or at least maybe this week.

The hotels listed are the best of the two stars, meaning that you'll find character if not always the firmest of mattresses. The restaurants are truly the best that France has to offer for the local night out and the family Sunday lunch. I wouldn't hesitate to stop at any of their suggestions and I know I won't break the vacation budget.

I have found the Rough Guide (in English) or Routard (French) the second most useful hotel and food guidebook for France, after the Michelin Red Guide. I take both along because The Rough Guide offers less expensive suggestions, its range sometimes bridging from Michelin to Let's Go (the specialists for cheap). The Rough Guide includes more remarks than Michelin, so it's the sort of guide that is worth checking out before arriving, to find places you'll like. I agree with another reviewer that it offers listings for more towns than many popular U.S. issued books for France, so it's especially useful for those of us loving the countryside and finding the byways.

I'm slightly shocked to be the first reviewer of this guidebook, which is the best of it's kind I have ever seen. It is strictly a resource for locating restaurants and hotels in France, with little or no guidance about the sites that the towns offer.

That said, I cannot recommend this book too highly. What it is is a guide to small hotels and restaurants offer special value, ambiance, food, or comfort in virtually every city, town, and village in all of France. This guide will allow you to find that 13th century hotel in Dinan or that old restaurant in Troyes. Most of the offerings here are exceptional value in some way, usually offering exceptional comfort at moderate prices. As such it fits below the Michelen Red guides but often offers much better value than the Red Guide. France offers much in culture and cuisine, and staying and eating in historic places can add much to one's experience.

This is the best guidebook for Paris (in my opinion) for people who want hotel and restaurant recommendations and are interested in a bit of background history of the city. This book (and previous editions) have been my companions during several Paris trips over the past 13 years. This book introduced me to my favorite Paris restaurant, a place to which we return every time we are in town.

I am a guide book and travel fanatic and I generally buy and read a number of guide books for whatever destination I have in mind. I am also a Paris-phile and have been to Paris 5 times in the past 13 years for both business and pleasure.

This book stands out as the best for my demographic, the professional age 20 - 40 crowd.

The book stands above other travel books particularly in its hotel, bar, club and restaurant recommendations and is worthwhile for these alone. It also provides some fantastic historical insight into Paris, particularly with regards to 20th century Parisian history.

It is printed on a pulpy paper and is very light, something to keep in mind if you are just packing a single bag and taking off to Paris for the weekend.

I'm a travel book fiend. It's an addiction - I admit it's not healthy, but that's life. So, for my recent trip to Paris and London, I think I bought 10 books. This was the only one I brought with me. I found the Rough Guide to Paris easy to read, helpful, compact, and insightful.

If - unlike me - you only plan to buy one book for your trip, make it this one.

The Pyrenees are some of the best terrain for outdoor adventure in Europe. As this guide points out, though, while they've often "taken second fiddle" to the Alps, they actually offer a greater variety of things to do -- all levels of hiking, plus whitewater rafting, biking, caving, skiing, horse riding, rock climbing, and just kicking back, not to mention quick access to Mediterranean beaches and "cultured" places like Barcelona and Bilbao. Wildlife is abundant and, unless this excellent guide gets into too many people's hands, tourists are not. What more could you ask for?

Dubin's guide is jam-packed with detail. It's pretty much oriented toward the outdoors -- after all, that's why most people come to the Pyrenees -- but it also includes information about the region's attractive architecture. The guide is divided up into five sections each about 60 pages-long: the Eastern Pyrenées, Andorra, the Vall D'Aran, the western national parks (Parc National des Pyrenées and Parque Nacional de Ordesa), and the Western Pyrenées. Information about accomodations is a little skimpy here and there, but that's not a serious problem. You won't have any trouble finding a place to stay. All the essentials about traveling by train and bus are here, too.

The guide's big strength is its walking itineraries. They make up about half the book. Here's part of one: "For the simpler appraoch to Pedraforca [a peak], head south for forty minutes from the refuge fountain, along a narrow but well-trodden path through pine and box, to the base of the giant scree hully leading up to Forcadura. Turning sharply west up this, guided by a few red-and-yellow paint splodges, brings you to the saddle in just under two hours from the refuge, after a very slippery, mostly trailless climb. At Forcadura, you'll glimpse Gòsol to the west -- and a gentler, distinct trail slithering up the Canal de Gòsol ("canal" meaning ravine in local parlance). From Forcadura it's another 25 minutes north up a reasonable, obvious trail to the top of Pollegó Superior, with its assorted Catalan flags, "mailbox" for dedications and the expected views. Return is by this same route, for a total outing of just under five hours."

Full of interesting anecdotes, the book also includes tables listing the dates of local festivals and, at the end, a section on Pyrenean history, culture, and wildlife. Finally, you'll find a brief Spanish and French glossary and a handful of useful words and phrases from those beautiful "mountain languages," Basque and Catalan.

As for Dubin's maps, you'll need some better ones if you're planning any serious trekking, but for the light walker like myself, they'll do. Again, his descriptions of trails are very detailed and could almost take the place of maps.

For more books on the Pyrenees, check out my Listmania lists.

The Pyrenees are some of the best terrain for outdoor adventure in Europe. As this guide points out, though, while they've often "taken second fiddle" to the Alps, they actually offer a bigger variety of things to do -- all levels of hiking, plus whitewater rafting, biking, caving, skiing, horse riding, rock climbing, and taking it easy, not to mention quick access to Mediterranean beaches and "cultured" places like Barcelona and Bilbao. Wildlife is abundant and, unless this guide gets into too many people's hands, tourists are not. What more could you ask for?

Dubin's guide is jam-packed with detail. It's pretty much oriented toward the outdoors -- after all, that's why most people come to the Pyrenees -- but it also includes information about the region's attractive architecture. The guide is divided up into five sections each about 60 pages-long: the Eastern Pyrenées, Andorra, the Vall D'Aran, the western national parks (Parc National des Pyrenées and Parque Nacional de Ordesa), and the Western Pyrenées. Information about accomodations is a little skimpy here and there, but that's not a serious problem. You won't have any trouble finding a place to stay. All the essentials about traveling by train and bus are here, too.

The guide's big strength is its walking itineraries. They make up about half the book. Here's part of one: "For the simpler appraoch to Pedraforca [a peak], head south for forty minutes from the refuge fountain, along a narrow but well-trodden path through pine and box, to the base of the giant scree hully leading up to Forcadura. Turning sharply west up this, guided by a few red-and-yellow paint splodges, brings you to the saddle in just under two hours from the refuge, after a very slippery, mostly trailless climb. At Forcadura, you'll glimpse Gòsol to the west -- and a gentler, distinct trail slithering up the Canal de Gòsol ("canal" meaning ravine in local parlance). From Forcadura it's another 25 minutes north up a reasonable, obvious trail to the top of Pollegó Superior, with its assorted Catalan flags, "mailbox" for dedications and the expected views. Return is by this same route, for a total outing of just under five hours."

Full of interesting anecdotes, the book also includes tables listing the dates of local festivals and, at the end, a section on Pyrenean history, culture, and wildlife. Finally, you'll find a brief Spanish and French glossary and a handful of useful words and phrases from those beautiful "mountain languages," Basque and Catalan.

As for Dubin's maps, you'll need some better ones if you're planning any serious trekking, but for the light walker like myself, they'll do. Again, his descriptions of trails are very detailed and could almost take the place of maps.

For more books on the Pyrenees, check out my Listmania lists.

Marc Dubins rough guide is a detailed and interesting book. He concentrates on the areas close to the mountains and gives interesting descriptions of small villages as well as larger resorts and towns. He includes recommended walks and rates the ski resorts. He assumes you will be walking or on public transport and so does not cover many hamlets and villages only reachable by car. Overall a very thorough book that I am sure will be invaluble on our trip there.

I have always wanted to go to Sweden. I started learning Swedish when I was 14, and I started a pen-pal friendship with a Sweden at the same time. When I was 21 I finally made a trip to Sweden (March 2002) for 2 weeks and I used the May 2002 edition of this book.

I spent my time in three cities: Stockholm, Umeå, and Skellefteå. Most guidebooks that I looked at covered the south of Sweden quite well at the expense of the North. This guidebook used 25% of its space to write about the two largest cities and 60% to write about the rest of Sweden. (The remaining 15% of the book deals with formalities of getting to/into Sweden, language, food, etc.)

The section on Stockholm was fantastic, and since the chapter was organized based on each island or section of the city, it was very easy to read. You could plot out which part of the city you wanted to visit each day with ease. The book specifies open/close times very well (although you always double check). As someone traveling in the winter, I appreciated that fact! Some guidebooks don't list the months that something is open!

Whereas some guidebooks have 2 paragraphs on Umeå and Skellefteå, this one had 6 and 3, respectively. The cities are described well and the information is as much as you'll probably need.

Another nice feature is that the guide features fairly detailed information about getting to/from each city, even the small ones.

The third section of the book, about history, food, money, language, etc was well laid out, and the history section was as complete as most general tourists would want it.

The book caters to a variety of tourists as it lists a wide (very wide) variety of accomodations, restaurants, activities, and methods of travel. Other guidebooks aimed at "poor college students" seem to cover mostly pubs and nightclubs at the expense of museums. Guidebooks aimed at the "one trip to Europe in a lifetime let's use all of our stock earnings" books seem to cover hotels at the expense of hostels. This book covers both.

Overall, a very good buy.

Sweden is a wonderful travel destination. It is beautiful country that manages to be both very tranquil and very dynamic. However, like most Americans, I was totally ignorant about Sweden. In fact, I don't think I would ever have gone there if I hadn't found this book in the public library. It got me interested enough to spend a few weeks in Sweden, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I will definitely go back!

The book was very detailed and accurate, and went well beyond the average travel guide in the level of interesting detail about almost everything you could possibly encounter in Sweden. Although the book was published in 1997 and I went in 1999, most of the hotel and restaurant information was still accurate. The book also provides a good introduction to the history and culture of Sweden.

I throughly enjoyed reading this book, about a country which so little is understood, I baffled as to why nobody has discovered this fancisating guide to a wonderfully exciting, beautiful country. It's a must that you visit the beautiful,wonderous, exciting, young and vibrant and little known cities in northern europe Stockholm. Stockholm has been described as the "The Venice of the North". But Stockholm is far more beautiful, spacious, less crowded but best of all it has 24,000 islands in it's archipalego to discover. Don,t take my word for it GO!

I am a history maj at UHH and am required to write a review for this book. In spirit of true historians i will convey my review for everyone.
Lindsey Hughes presents an information rich, easily readable resource, of 18th century Russia, and in my opinion, "produced a well balanced historical reference book." Researching information for this book would lead you to believe that Peter was not a favorved tsar of his time or even today. Dr. Hughes presents unbias evidence for readers to beable to potray the Petrine era, she accomplishes this while still being able to envoke the feeling of those who gave reffrence of Peter during his time. "This newest Russian tittle will give you imense amounts of information allowing you to regurgitate a clear picture of just how life was during Russia in the age of Peter the Great.

This book covers almost every angle of a very dynamic and consequential period in the history of Russia. Its organization allows the reader to move easily through the book and examine those parts which are of interest. I read the book from cover to cover and was never once displeased with the well-researched facts and attention to detail. I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in Russia's history.

This book overshadows almost everything ever written about Peter the Great and his era. It is deeply researched, incisively argued, stylishly presented, and a marvelous read. Hughes organizes a huge amount of material logically and clearly; her prose exudes spirit and style. She revises much received wisdom. She treats many neglected topics with great insight and good sense. She makes many fascinating comparisons and constantly keeps in mind the contemporary context that Peter lived in. She has a wonderful eye for memorable quotations and shows great wit in her wide-ranging presentation. Her book makes many others look silly and shallow and stodgy. Her book achieves a wonderful balance between scholarly discoveries and revisions and popular topics with wide appeal to any literate person. A sterling achievement in all respects.

This book is required reading for anyone interested in the ex-East Germany. From the very beginning, Naimark shows how the Moscow Germans (Ulbricht, et al) were apologists for everything and anything the Soviets did to their conquered German "friends." This more than anything else painted the Communists and their "United Front" Party, the SED, as little more than stooges for the hated Russians. Thus, the GDR leadership had no legitimacy in the eyes of the average worker. Naimark's study also describes how complete Sovietization was in the arts and education, though he only peripherally describes the Lutheran Church's involvement in the social transformation being wrought. This is curious, since it was the Church that provided a haven for dissent in the future years, but Naimark clearly had to prioritize his subjects of focus. This is a "must-have" for anyone interested in the Cold War, the GDR and the Soviet Union.

This is a quite outstanding piece of research into a subject that was once all but closed off to scholars, thanks to East German and Soviet secrecy. The author seems familiar with all the available source material in German and Russian and as a result writes with complete authority. Among his conclusions are that even the East German Communists found it hard to accept some of the sheer brutality and bullying of the Soviet occupiers. At the same time, the Soviet authorities were not too impressed with the East German comrades' plans to accelerate the imposition of a Soviet-type political and economic system. Meanwhile, rape and rapacity on the part of the occupiers proceeded apace. A remarkable work that leaves a lasting impression.

Because history is written by the victors, one seldom hears of the plight of the vanquished. The author desribes the rape, plunder, murder, and indoctrination of ordinary Germans after WWII. by the Russians and their communist allies. This book documents the terror these people indured and how they survived.

....when did Brian Townsend change his name to Michael Jackson? Is it possible that "magellan359" got a wee bit off course from one wee dram too many? Other than that, it's an ok review except for the fact that it's more about him than about the book, not what one would expect from one of Amazon's "top" reviewers. Oh, well...

This is another book by the noted whisky writer and connoisseur, Michael Jackson. Jackson is well-known for having written a standard guide to single-malt whisky, which is now at least in it's third edition (of which I have all three).

Many of Scotland's distilleries had closed in recent (and not-so-recent) decades, and I thought I'd mention some of my favorites, which Jackson discusses in his book.

Some, like the heavily peated Islay, Arbeg (which I understand has been re-opened, fortunately), were justly famous; others, like Dallas Dhu and Millburn, were more obscure, but their closing was still a loss. People used to make jokes about the Dallas Dhu name (which means "black glen" in Scots Gaelic), but it really did produce a fine malt, and I had fun doing tastings of it with friends back in the late 80's, when it was still readily available in independent bottlings at different ages and from different independent bottlers. It was notable for some semi-sweet chocolate notes, a rare flavor and essence in scotch whiskey, and I used to enjoy it very much. The only other malt that comes to mind with a chocolate flavor to me right now was a 25-year-old bottling of Scapa, a 1968 or therabouts issue, if I remember correctly. But anyway, it certainly was a fine malt and worthy of comparison with the Dallas Dhu. In fact, one time I put on a tasting for other single-malt afficianado friends and acqaintances of almost nothing but "vanished malts," of which I had bottles of about a dozen at the time, and we all had a great time tasting their whiskies and talking about single-malts and whatever.

I also consider myself very knowlegeable about Cognac and bourbons, of which I am also very fond. But as far as distilled spirits go, if there is one thing that separates single malts from the others, it's the sheer spectrum of diversity and intensity of the many qualities that they possess. The intense, crystal-clear essences and flavors of this great distillate are unique, and in truly appreciating a fine dram of one of the great single malts at the end of a day, even life's more pressing problems seem to themselves vanish for a moment. As someone once wrote, life is still worth living as long as there is a good single-malt available. And perhaps that's why it translates from the Gaelic as "the water of life."

But getting back to Jackson's book, Jackson here gives a nod to the history and scotch of the many famous and more obscure distilleries and whiskies of Scotland that are no longer with us. I consider myself pretty knowledgeable about all the different distilleries, even the defunct ones, but I still learned some new things from this enjoyable book, and I would recommened it highly to all single-malt enthusiasts who are looking for something different in a book about scotch.

Highly informative paperback on scotland's lost whisky distilleries, including those which have closed in recent years and whose whiskies can still be found in specialist shops or the occasional liquor store that doesn't realise the gems it has on its shelves. Definitely a must for the whisky enthusiast looking for a dram of a book.