1. ISBN13: 9780307267511
2. Condition: NEW
3. Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Customer Review :

Marvelously, Easy To Follow Italian Recipes

I am a big fan of Lidia, as well as the owner of one of her earlier cook books. I found this particular cookbook chock full of easy to follow recipes that even a less experienced cook would be able to prepare. Instructions were clear and precise. Ingredients were readily available in the neighborhood supermarket. An all-around delightful book, picturesque, enhanced with Lidia's personal touch.

Rating :

Che buono

questo libro e tutti che si vuole in un libro. ho cocinato pochi de le ricette qui. sonno molto buone

Rating :

cooking


Wonderful recipes even us non-cooks could attempt and probably succeed with, but great for real cooks.

Rating :

Lidia, the Julia Child of Italian Cooking

I collect cookbooks and am an experienced amateur chef. Sometimes you buy a cookbook and get one recipe from that book that is worth the price of the book. Lidia's treasure chest of regional recipes is just that, a treasure.
Oh, that one recipe that was worth the price of the book? Spinach alla Genovese, page 107. I did take liberties with the recipe as Lidia often suggests and added red pepper flakes. I grilled rib eye steaks and served them on a bed of this spinach.
She suggests we make sandwiches of the leftovers - this dish will never have left overs at my house! I had already planted a Swiss chard bed and plan to have Swiss Chard alla Genovese Lidia - The Julia Child of Italian Cooking.

Rating :

Mouth-watering recipes

I have all Lidia's cookbooks and I enjoy cooking her recipes. I also enjoy the history of Italy that is always a part of her books as well as her family experiences. The photos of her food makes me hungry so there is only one thing to do,--go cooking. My dream has always been to take my fork and head for her kitchen. Thank you Amazon for this wonderful service you provide for cookbook addicts like me. And the price is right too.

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1. ISBN13: 9780316042796
2. Condition: NEW
3. Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Editorial Review :

In Paris for a weekend visit, Elizabeth Bard sat down to lunch with a handsome Frenchman--and never went home again.

Was it love at first sight? Or was it the way her knife slid effortlessly through her pavé au poivre, the steak'spink juices puddling into the buttery pepper sauce? LUNCH IN PARIS is a memoir about a young American woman caught up in two passionate love affairs--one with her new beau, Gwendal, the other with French cuisine. Packing her bags for a new life in the world's most romantic city, Elizabeth is plunged into a world of bustling open-air markets, hipster bistros, and size 2 femmes fatales. She learns to gut her first fish (with a little help from Jane Austen), soothe pangs of homesickness (with the rise of a chocolate soufflé) and develops a crush on her local butcher (who bears a striking resemblance to Matt Dillon). Elizabeth finds that the deeper she immerses herself in the world of French cuisine, the more Paris itself begins to translate. French culture, she discovers, is not unlike a well-ripened cheese-there may be a crusty exterior, until you cut through to the melting, piquant heart.

Peppered with mouth-watering recipes for summer ratatouille, swordfish tartare and molten chocolate cakes, Lunch in Paris is a story of falling in love, redefining success and discovering what it truly means to be at home. In the delicious tradition of memoirs like A Year in Provence and Under the Tuscan Sun, this book is the perfect treat for anyone who has dreamed that lunch in Paris could change their life.

Customer Review :

A Michelin-starred restaurant meal , prepared by a sous-chef

To be clear, this review is a straight 3 stars.

Like many of these reviewers, I too love all things French. In no small way, it is because that is my heritage. So, I too have spent much time in Paris, and thought this book would be an entertaining and insightful read. Not quite. While Elizabeth Bard has some expressive ways of describing French tendencies, it is apparent that she thought she should do this at the expense of her American heritage. Frankly, I find that boring. Plus the addition of recipes is so cliche, that I have no interest in trying them. (I had a similarly negative reaction to Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes, but in that case I also disliked Mayes puerile writing style immensely).

What is good is that Bard's writing is amusing once you get past the opening line. Her turn of phrase is clever and reasonably well articulated. Even her story is compelling. But she provides too many intimate details about her "affair" with her then first date/now husband, and not enough details about trying to assimilate into a French family. The cultural and societal differences between the US and France are well known, as are the issues that come to any couple that is newly married. Since this is a memoir, why not explore in depth her trials and tribulations of fitting into a culturally different family? And, by the way, how about addressing his familial expectations and experiences with her American counterpart, and how the two of them transcend the familial issues? Not only is she capable of writing humorous antidotes about each family on personal level, without the intimate or belittling overtones, but more of that would have been "fascinating" to read. Not so her descriptions of sex, society, and the US vs. French governments. As others have noted, the last half is more interesting than the first half. Bard should understand the difference, if she wants her writing to grow. Her first book, is a quick read, with a cute story, but her personal details could have included a more intriguing bent. And, NOTE TO PUBLISHERS, enough already with the memoirs infiltrated with recipes!

Rating :

BANAL, AND VERY, VERY BORING!

I read Elizabeth's book due to "Forever in France", a Parisian women's group recommendation.

I am an American lawyer living in Paris for the last 3 years with my French boyfriend.
I don't want to stay in France "forever". I would be afraid to turn out like the French-scared of everything,
lacking in creativity, robotic, and on depression pills just to make it through the day.

There is nothing romantic about the French.
As a nation, they take the most depression pills of any country in the world, and rank only second in the world to their patronage of McDonalds. Most cannot cook, and prefer cheap food, or the frozen food of Pichard!

The French are married to France for life for the benefits, not to any mortal human being.
All they desire is the certainty of their benefits. One can't achieve certainty with an ordinary human being who faces life in all its uncertainty, so this isn't an option for them.

France is the country divorce lawyers advise their clients to bring their spouses. When a spouse wants to divorce, they ask for a transfer to France a year or so before they execute their divorce plans. A spouse in France means next to nothing. 99.9% end up with nothing when they divorce!

Unless dear Elizabeth, who is already too "old", works 41 years under current French law, she too will find out the real meaning of life in France. Now that the financial crisis is in France in a big way, I am not sure she will end up with anything worth having except a big tax bill in a foreign country and the likely hood of a divorce which is what happens in the majority of cross- cultural French marriages. Good luck, Elizabeth!

The French live a civilian military life of "metro, bolo, dodo".
The women don't need the men, and the men don't need the women.
France is their real spouse, and they take orders only from France.
They just follow the French orders without thinking, which is their history, like it or not.

They procreate due to French pro-natal policies which give them 10% more in their pensions if they have 3 children. At the same time, they outsource all of their jobs to Eastern Europe or Morocco. How long can they continue to pay for this nonsense?

As far as food goes, who can live a long, healthy life eating cheese, duck livers, meat, cream, butter and pastries? No one. As far as food is concerned, the French rarely cook. They are the faithful patrons of McDonalds and of fast, cheap food. They really don't have the wages for good food, as it is too expensive here and regressively taxed.

The best thing about France isn't there mediocre but high priced restaurants or rich, death inducing food.
The best thing about France is their public transportation, medical care system, fast internet, phone service, privacy, few ads, and some good museums.

Rating :

Pleasant enough, but nothing memorable

This is the account of an American woman who moves to Paris and marries her French boyfriend (who's not at all a stereotype - he's a tapdancing engineer with the unlikely name of Gwendal). It's about how she adapts to living in Paris and how she falls in love with the city and the cuisine. She ends every chapter with some of her favorite recipes, so it's part memoir, part travelogue, part recipe book.

Unfortunately Elizabeth just isn't as interesting as she thinks she is. There's too much about her - I love history! I grew up surrounded by women! I like eating! - and not enough objectively about the experience of moving to a new country. Parts of the book also felt like they had been taken verbatim from emails to her mother (eg "tonight when I came out of the Louvre I noticed them cleaning the windows").

Some of the most interesting parts for me were the way that she starts to find fault in so many aspects of the American culture. She pokes fun at American tourists and sneers at her mother for assuming that things will operate in Europe as they do in the US. Over my life I've lived in seven different countries, and it got me thinking about the way that I have adapted and assimilated. I was also interested in her views on the differences between American vs French attitudes, how what is quite acceptable in the US is seen as pushy in France and how Americans show their power by helping whereas the French show their power by blocking progress.

The integration of the recipes (more than 60) feels very natural given Elizabeth's obsession with food. (She's the kind of writer who describes walls as being the color of butter or a sweater as being the color of warm milk.) While I haven't tried any, for the most part they sound tasty and easy to follow. They are also included in the index.

While I found the book okay, I got bored towards the end, because ultimately it doesn't go anywhere. It felt like Bard wrote it because she had nothing better to do with her time. There are better books that cover similar territory. Almost French: Love and a New Life in Paris is one which I recommend, or if the foodie aspect is what appeals, try The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry: Love, Laughter, and Tears in Paris at the World's Most Famous Cooking School

Rating :

light and entertaining, with excellent recipes

For the lovers of everything French, "Lunch in Paris" is a nice pastime. Elizabeth Bard wrote up the story of her romance leading to a happy marriage with a Frenchman, lacing it with many recipes for French food.

Studying for a Master's degree, Elizabeth attended a conference in Paris, where she met Gwendal, a PhD student, and she let herself be seduced by his personality and lifestyle, falling in love with him and with Parisian life at the same time. She wanders around Paris, eating in typical French restaurants, making observations of differences between French and American homes, families, attitude to work... There are some recommendations of restaurants which sound amazing, and the Paris which emerges from her story is even more alluring than the one from guidebooks (and very realistic).

There are many similar books, in the boom that started with Peter Mayle - pleasant literary holidays for those who cannot go to their dream places. "Lunch in Paris" is not very original and fill of clichés, but it is written with humor and wit, and the recipes are excellent and not too hard to follow (I have tried some already: yoghurt cake, savory cake, lentils, ratatouille - and all of them worked). In fact, I think that the recipes may be the best part of the whole book. The narrative part is a bit naïve, banal and stereotypic, but it reads fast and is a pleasant distraction from everyday life.

Rating :

A Transforming Lunch The Parisenne Way

A young girl goes to Paris for the weekend. A young pretty American girl goes to Paris for the weekend and is invited to lunch by a good looking Frenchman. And, life for this young girl will never be the same.

Elizabeth Bard from New Jersey travels to London to find herself and a job. She had a major in art and finds little bits and pieces to keep body and soul together. On a weekend in Paris she finds the Frenchman. Not the man of her dreams, but a dreamy man. They fall in love, move in together and then the meeting of the families. The overwrought American parents meet the laid back French parents. Soon everyone loves each other. And, Elizabeth, well, she is still trying to find herself. She does some freelance jobs and learns to cook. She learns to order from the meat market, choose the right veggies and fruits and finds Paris is her home. Gwendall, her French boyfriend proposes and a wedding is planned. A small quiet affair, a new apartment and a new life. Elizabeth finds her place. Elizabeth has many adventures as an American in Paris, and she shares and handles them with aplomb. The upstair neighbors who won't leave. The 38 course New Years cooked by her father-in-law- one of the best meals she has ever had. Shopping for shoes and clothes, walking and exploring all of Paris, she brings this to us and we love it.

Elizabeth Bard intersperse her stories of life with recipes and they look and sound wonderful. These are recipes from her family, and then from her husband's family. I tried her chocolate pudding cake and it is delicious. She gives advice with her recipes and shortcuts that make sense. She writes in a manner that causes interest and empathy. She is bright and witty. Paris and the French are explained in a manner that should interest every American. By the way, while riding the subway never talk about your sex life, how much you detest the French, the person sitting next to you probably understands English!

Recommended. prisrob 02-21-10



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Editorial Review :

Part foreign affairs discourse, part humor, and part twisted self-help guide, The Geography of Bliss takes the reader from America to Iceland to India in search of happiness, or, in the crabby author's case, moments of "un-unhappiness." The book uses a beguiling mixture of travel, psychology, science and humor to investigate not what happiness is, but where it is. Are people in Switzerland happier because it is the most democratic country in the world? Do citizens of Qatar, awash in petrodollars, find joy in all that cash? Is the King of Bhutan a visionary for his initiative to calculate Gross National Happiness? Why is Asheville, North Carolina so damn happy? With engaging wit and surprising insights, Eric Weiner answers those questions and many others, offering travelers of all moods some interesting new ideas for sunnier destinations and dispositions. (2007)

Customer Review :

Falls Flat

I love travelogues, and this whole burgeoning field of "Happiness Studies" seems pretty interesting to me, so I figured I was the perfect audience for this book. Unfortunately, this attempt to get at the essence of happiness via visits to a variety of countries (Holland, Switzerland, Bhutan, Qatar, Iceland, Moldova, Thailand, Great Britain, India, and America) is pretty superficial, and just not that interesting a read. The author's disappointingly limited approach is to take one aspect of a country and use that as the lens for his brief look at its happiness (or lack thereof).

To plan his grand tour, he first visits the Dutch researcher in charge of the "World Database of Happiness", and sifts through the national rankings for most and least happy places in the world. He then bats around the idea that the Dutch are a happy nation due to their relative permissiveness (as evidenced by drug and prostitution laws), which is such a facile idea that I shouldn't have been surprised by the rest of the book. Next it's on to Switzerland, where maybe happiness is the offspring of an orderly society. In Iceland, it's homogeneity. In Qatar, it's massive wealth. In Bhutan, it's social policy (the government actually measures Gross National Happiness). In Thailand, it's not thinking too much. In India, it's spirituality. In each country he chats with cabbies, meets with someone vaguely relevant to his topic, and has surprisingly little insight for a veteran foreign correspondent. To provide a little variety, he also travels to the world's unhappiest non-warzone: Moldova. His findings there confirm pretty much everything I've ever read about the miserable country, as well as the bleak stories related by friends of mine who've worked there. He also travels to Slough, England to look at whether or not a made-for-TV experiment to raise the city's happiness had any lasting effect.

While some of the individual situations and conversations he has are kind of interesting, none of the chapters hold together particularly well, nor do the succession of them lead to any insight. Everything comes to the reader through his grumpy middle-aged, upper middle-class white male perspective, and his constant attempts at self-deprecating levity fall flat throughout. He somehow manages to make travels to some pretty interesting places remarkably unmemorable. I've been to some of the same places (Iceland, Switzerland, Thailand, Slough) and I have family or close friends who've been to all the rest (yes, including Moldova and Bhutan), and I'm struggling to think of a single insight I gleaned from this book either about happiness or other cultures.

Rating :

Blissful Travel

A lovely light read, travel writing about the various places deemed happiest in the world, plus one very unhappy place. It was interesting to read different perspectives of happiness, and confirmed my desire to go to Iceland!

Rating :

Excellent read

Mostly witty, seldom boring, very insightful and thoroughly entertaining. The author sprinkles his sarcasm and jokes very subtly - the overall affect of which is a hurting jaw from constant smile on the reader's face.

Rating :

What is Happiness?


What is the meaning of happiness? Does it differ from country to country? These are some interesting questions that are answered by Mr. Eric Weiner with some subtle, light humor. He takes the reader across several continents and looks at the meaning of happiness in different countries. Surprisingly there is also a Journal of Happiness, and countries are also rated on their happiness. Mr. Weiner also shares his experiences as an NPR reporter who has been posted around the world on different assignments. The author also passes on interesting tidbits of trivia knowledge. For example when returning to their home country of Iceland on an airplane, the Icelandic people clap their hands after the airplane has landed. I found this fascinating. There are many more fascinating facts to be learned, so I will let you read the book and find out for yourselves.

This is a book that can be read more than once. Overall it was a wonderful read, and it makes a nice book to have at your bedside. It makes the reader think about what happiness means, while also having a fun journey with our guide, Mr. Weiner.


Rating :

Funny and makes you want to travel

About: Weiner searches for the happiest places on the globe. Along the way he visits Bhutan, Qatar, Iceland, Moldova, Thailand, London, India and Asheville, NC.

Pros: Very funny, interesting, I want to visit many of the places he did.

Cons: No in-text cites, only selected bibliography.

Grade: A-

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1. ISBN13: 9780812992182
2. Condition: NEW
3. Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Editorial Review :

Vagabonding is about taking time off from your normal life—from six weeks to four months to two years—to discover and experience the world on your own terms. Veteran shoestring traveler Rolf Potts shows how anyone armed with an independent spirit can achieve the dream of extended overseas travel. Potts gives the necessary information on:

• financing your travel time
• determining your destination
• adjusting to life on the road
• working and volunteering overseas
• handling travel adversity
• re-assimilating back into ordinary life

Not just a plan of action, vagabonding is an outlook on life that emphasizes creativity, discovery, and the growth of the spirit.

Customer Review :

5 Stars for Inspiration, 5 for Information

There are two main things I liked about this book:

A) It is THE book if you want the urge to "just take the first plane ticket anywhere, and go on an adventure." This book is amazing motivation if you are considering doing a long-term travel trip.

B) It gives concise resources. Nothing more to say, information is all there.

C) The quotes. Nothing like poetic (and wise) statements that make you want to give it all up and go.

I personally loved it. I can hardly contain my excitement over the next 6 months before I leave.

Rating :

fun and inspiring practical handbook

For such a short book, Vagabonding packs in a great deal of information, both practical and entertaining. The author covers in 11 bite-sized chapters his philosophy, and hopefully soon to be yours, of enjoying life, learning from travel, stretching one's horizons and really living life in the present. Why live life to travel, when you can travel to live life?

The book starts with the basic idea of embracing long-term travel, and how to allow yourself, and talk your boss into allowing you, to take some real time off; how to prepare for the adventure; how much planning to do and how much to leave to chance and whim; what to pack and definitely what not to haul along; finding work while abroad to raise the occasional beer money; when you need help and where to find it; meeting people; documenting and memorializing the experience; and finally, optionally I suppose, coming home and coming down.

Throughout the book are short bios of famously peripatetic types, quotes from others on their experiences and awakenings, and some anecdotes from the road. More importantly, the book is absolutely loaded with websites, contact info, and specifics on how and where to learn more about every facet of the experience.

A book as compact and stuffed with valuable information is well worth bringing with you on your next trip, and will surely enhance any long-term travel you have in mind now and in the future.

Rating :

More why than how

Honestly, the title "Vagabonding" nearly made me not read this book, when I came across it searching for literature on sabbaticals. But then I had a very positive surprise after downloading first the sample on my Kindle DX, to read opinions and views on long term travel as a way of life and not as a "break". The book is very well researched and inspired me to read further, also following many citations and quotes. By this the book became a key to more dimensions and it reached the objective to be beyond a classical travel guide. Very good book for those, who are thinking more about the why than the how.

Rating :

Ok

I had hoped this book would blow me away with wonderful ideas and new insights, but the majority of the stuff I already knew or didn't really care about. It did have some good resources for websites and other books to check out.

Rating :

short and useful

I don't like to be as cheap as possible when traveling. I think that a part of a long-term travel is to enjoy the wealth the world has to offer you, and yes - sometimes, that joy costs some cash.

There's a way to avoid spending a fortune on hotels or nickels on less comfortable hostels, and that's being a guest in someone's house. Lately, the Couch-Surfing fashion is catching quite well... I had tried it, and it's great, in both ways - when you have a guest and when you are a guest in somebody's house.

This book has listed some great resources, and even if for its philosophy alone - read it.

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1. ISBN13: 9780971727991
2. Condition: NEW
3. Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
4. Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Editorial Review :

USA Today calls it, "An authoritative and in-depth look at all that the island offers." The author is a resident who personally and anonymously reviews every facet of Maui. From restaurants to helicopter companies to scuba to beaches to trails, he sees it all and shows you the best Maui has to offer.

Customer Review :

Common sense advice for folks on a budget

If you find yourself going to Maui or any of the other islands (all covered to some extent by Wizard Publications "Revealed" series) and you're interested in relatively inexpensive activities focused on the outdoors, these are the guidebooks for you. First of all, the books are packed with accurate, detailed, easy-to-read, appropriately arranged maps. In most cases the maps are supplemented with photographs that help you double-check that you're in the right spot. If you like to head out on your own and do your own thing, it's easy to map out a game-plan and go for it. Secondly, the well-written guides are based on a "no-nonsense" approach to travel: straightforward common sense advice about safety, culture, history, activities, prices, weather and even the crackling noise you hear when you snorkel. One of the most significant challenges in writing a guide book about anything is that in order to present accurate, detailed information, you have to become an expert. Once you become an expert, however, it's easy to forget what it was like when you didn't know squat. Maui Revealed is a guidebook written by experts for use by us amateurs. It's an environmentally conscious, culturally aware, budget-minded, brutally honest guide to Maui. Only Shot At A Good Tombstone

Rating :

Maui Revealed: The Ultimate Guidebook (Maui Revealed)

I purchased this book on recommendations from other travellers to Maui and even though I haven't read it all yet, the information, tips, tricks, hints and suggestions are fantastic. I am a first time traveller to Maui and unlike many other publications this one gives you expert analysis on the rights and wrongs, places to see and which ones you will be wasting your time with.

A must get for any Maui traveller

Rating :

A must have book

I already have "Big Island Revealed" so I knew I needed this one. Very accurate info delivered in a casual and sometimes comical way. Best guide books I have ever read. With this book one can just about plan all their daily vacation outings from the mainland, but bring the book anyway.

Rating :

Excellent resource

This is the single book I needed. Took a look at many others, but this was the most friendly.

Rating :

Great book full of tips, location, & photos.

This is a great book and very popular. It seemed most people doing driving tours around the island had one. They also have them for sale on Maui but it is best to buy ahead of time and mark up the things you want to go see. There is so much to go and do in Maui, I was shocked. We didn't get to see half of it. The authors are great because they aren't boring, they talk with humour & give you the truth of all situations from history to present day ownerships, also places to see & not to waste your time on, & where to eat & not eat. There are lots of visuals of places to see & maps & mile markers to help guide you. I recommend this book to anyone going to Maui.

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