Michelin Must Sees Washington DC or Death in the Afternoon

Michelin Must Sees Washington, DC

Author: Michelin

The Michelin Must Sees series helps visitors make the most of their trip. Through Michelin's time-honored star rating system, Michelin helps you narrow your choices and zero in on the sights you, well, must see. In Spring 2009 the Must Sees are getting a major facelift—a completely redesigned interior layout, new maps and photos, fresh cover treatment and more portable trim size. In addition, the new Michelin Man symbol will represent top picks for activities, entertainment, where to eat and where to stay.

Go to: Greek or Eating In

Death in the Afternoon

Author: Ernest Hemingway

Still considered one of the best books ever written about bullfighting, Death in the Afternoon is an impassioned look at the sport by one of its true aficionados. It reflects Hemingway's conviction that bullfighting was more than mere sport and reveals a rich source of inspiration for his art. The unrivaled drama of bullfighting, with its rigorous combination of athleticism and artistry, and its requisite display of grace under pressure, ignited Hemingway's imagination. Here he describes and explains the technical aspects of this dangerous ritual and "the emotional and spiritual intensity and pure classic beauty that can be produced by a man, an animal, and a piece of scarlet serge draped on a stick." Seen through his eyes, bullfighting becomes a richly choreographed ballet, with performers who range from awkward amateurs to masters of great elegance and cunning.

A fascinating look at the history and grandeur of bullfighting, Death in the Afternoon is also a deeper contemplation of the nature of cowardice and bravery, sport and tragedy, and is enlivened throughout by Hemingway's sharp commentary on life and literature.

New York or Eyewitness Travel Great Britain

New York: An Illustrated History

Author: Ric Burns

The companion volume to the PBS television series, with more than 500 full-color and black-and-white illustrations

This lavish and handsomely produced book captures all the beauty, complexity, and power of New York -- the city that seems the very embodiment of ambition, aspiration, romance, desire; the city that has epitomized the entire parade of modern life, with all its possibilities and problems. Chronicling the story of New York from its establishment as a Dutch trading post in 1624 to its global preeminence today, the book is at once the biography of a great city and a vivid exploration of the myriad forces -- commercial, cultural, demographic -- that converged in New York to usher in the contemporary world.

Weaving the strands of the city's sweeping history into a single compelling narrative, New York carries us through nearly four centuries of turbulent growth and change -- from the first settlement on the tip of "Manna-hata" Island to the destruction wrought by the Revolutionary War; to the city's stunning emergence in the nineteenth century as the nation's premier industrial metropolis; to the waves of early-twentieth-century immigration that forever transformed the city and the nation; to New York's transfiguration as the world's first modern city -- pioneering skyscrapers, apartment houses, subways, and highways -- and its role as the birthplace of so much of American popular culture. Along the way, we witness the building of the city's celebrated landmarks and neighborhoods, from the Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of Liberty to the Empire State Building and the United Nations; from Wall Street and Times Square to the Lower East Side, Harlem, andSoHo.

The book brims with vibrant illustrations, including hundreds of rare photographs, paintings, lithographs, prints, and period maps. The narrative incorporates the voices and stories of men and women -- statesmen, entrepreneurs, artists, and visionaries -- who have lived in and built the city: an extraordinary cast of characters that includes Peter Stuyvesant, Alexander Hamilton, John Jacob Astor, Walt Whitman, Boss Tweed, Jacob Riis, Emma Lazarus, J. P. Morgan, Al Smith, F. Scott Fitzgerald, George Gershwin, Fiorello La Guardia, Robert Moses, and Jane Jacobs.

Accompanying the book's narrative are interviews with Robert A. Caro, David Levering Lewis, and Robert A. M. Stern, and essays by a group of distinguished New York historians and critics -- Kenneth T. Jackson, Mike Wallace, Marshall Berman, Phillip Lopate, Carol Berkin, and Daniel Czitrom -- who add their insights about the city to this splendid history.


From the Hardcover edition.

New York Times

A ravishing book . . . It can easily fill a winter of reading and browsing.

Publishers Weekly

A companion to an upcoming PBS series, this lavishly illustrated history is an engaging and intelligent work in its own right, presenting a coherent overview without ever glossing over thorny historical or political questions. By supplementing their well-researched text with photographs, paintings, newspaper headlines and interviews with historians and social critics, Burns (The Civil War, with Ken Burns) and Sanders have produced a volume that is as attractive as it is perceptive. Arranged chronologically, the book manages to capture some of the diverse elements--such as the immigrant communities, labor unrest, traditional and avant-garde cultures, crime and architecture, among other factors--that continue to play important roles in the city's evolution. For example, the section on Greenwich Village, "The Republic of Washington Square," contains a succinct history of the area as a cultural engine, with rare photographs and illuminating quotes from Edmund Wilson and Floyd Dell. The section on the Harlem Renaissance provides a comprehensive analysis of the movement's development and importance, aptly illustrated and contextualized with an interview with David Levering Lewis. Burns and Sanders have successfully marshaled a huge amount of material into a format that is informative and highly entertaining. BOMC History Book Club selection. (Nov.) FYI: PBS will launch the 12-hour series New York on November 18.

Library Journal

This splendid history of America's premier city was written by Burns, director of such television documentaries as Coney Island and The Donner Party, and architect/writer Sanders. They were ably assisted by Ades, the picture editor, who assembled the 500 archival maps, paintings, prints, and contemporary photographs--all of which are visual delights that greatly enhance the text. Additional text is contributed by nine historians, urbanists, and literary figures. The companion volume to this fall's 12-hour PBS television series on the city, the book presents New York's sprawling history from the first sightings of the New York harbor by European explorers, through its founding as a Dutch colony in 1609, the beginning of English rule in 1664, the effects of the American Revolution, and on into the 19th and 20th centuries, which witnessed the city's emergence as the nation's leading seaport and its commercial, financial, and cultural capital. Both feared and widely emulated for its wealth and power, the city is a prodigy late 20th-century civilization. Burns's book helps explain how it got that way. Highly recommended. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/1/99.]--Harry Frumerman, formerly with Hunter Coll., New York

Entertainment Weekly - Daly

New York: An Illustrated History offers two kinds of pleasure: hundreds of carefully chosen photographs and a thoughtful, well written text.

The New York Times Book Review - David Walton

The book is, as such collaborations go, narratively crisp, balanced and well researched, with room for everyone from Washington Irving to Allen Ginsberg and from Emma Lazarus to Le Corbusier to have a say...

Table of Contents:

	Introduction: City of Desire
1	The Country and the City, 1609-1825	2
	Alexander Hamilton, the New Yorker with a National Vision	62
2	Order and Disorder, 1825-1865	68
	"The Locomotive of These United States"	131
3	Sunshine and Shadow, 1865-1898	138
	The Secrets of the Great City	210
4	The Power and the People, 1898-1919	216
	Where the Modern World Took Shape, 1898-1929	300
5	Cosmopolis, 1919-1931	308
	Harlem Renaissance	388
	Cosmopolitan Capital: New York in the 1920s	391
6	The City of Tomorrow, 1931-1939	394
	Robert Moses: The Power Broker	458
7	The City and the World, 1939-1969	466
	The Lonely Crowd: New York After the War	536
	Trauma, Apocalypse, Boom, Aftermath: New York City in the Last Twenty-five Years	542
	City of the Millennium	550
	Epilogue: The Center of the World	558
	Acknowledgments	606
	Selected Bibliography	607
	Index	612

Look this: Vitamins Minerals and Dietary Supplements or Secret Agents

Eyewitness Travel Great Britain

Author: Roger Williams

Each of Great Britain's countries that have grown out of kingdoms, principalities, shire, fiefs, boroughs, and parishes has its own special flavor. This derives from Britain's landscape, its resources and its history, all which have shaped its peoples, too. For more information about Great Britain's history, castles, gardens, restaurants, tours, national parks, stately homes and cathedrals look to Eyewitness Travel Great Britain.

• Annually revised and updated
• Beautiful new full-color photos, illustrations, and maps
• Includes information on local customs, currency, medical services, and transportation
• Consistently chosen over the competition in national consumer market research

Weird Pennsylvania or My French Life

Weird Pennsylvania: Your Travel Guide to Pennsylvania's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets

Author: Mark Moran

The Quaker State, the Keystone State, the Coal State—Pennsylvania is called all of these. But we like to call it the Weird State, because there's enough strange stuff going on here to fill an encyclopedia, or better yet, a book appropriately called Weird Pennsylvania.

And who better to chronicle this state's roadside oddities, ancient mysteries, ghosts, and bizarre beasts than Matt Lake, who, just like Benjamin Franklin, isn't from our state at all but sure has it in his bones. From the time he first arrived here last century, Matt has traveled thousands of miles, searching out Pennsylvania's best-kept secrets and oddest legends.

Scuttling about by every means available—except maybe the horse-drawn vehicles favored by some of our more famous citizens—and with notebook and camera in hand, Matt has gamely entered haunted houses, trekked lesser-traveled roads, discreetly photographed shoe-shaped houses, and made his way warily through abandoned mental institutions. Sheer force of will stopped him from buying a heart-shaped bathtub at the Mount Airy Lodge auction, but he did explore the wreck of the place so that we, admirers of the weird, could see the sad demise of another bit of Pennsylvania strangeness.

So turn the page and see the Statue of Liberty in the Dauphin Narrows, the dead and buried Corvette near Irwin, the tiny town of Midgetville, the Ape Boy of Chester, and Resurrection Mary in Schnecksville. Traipse through the ghostly Eastern State Penitentiary, listen to the Screaming Lady in Fort Mifflin, and sympathize with Mrs. Snell, who was rained on by mud, lots of mud. Swim with the Monster of Lake Erie, bravely wander down Devil's Road, chat with the Green Man of Pittsburgh, and, if you dare, sit beneath Skull Tree. It's all here, it's all for you, it's all...very weird.

A brand-new entry in the best-selling Weird series, Weird Pennsylvania is packed with all the info about the Quaker State that your history teacher never taught you. So travel down our state's highways and byways with Matt by your side. It's a great adventure. And we promise: It's a journey you'll never forget.

Matt Lake and Amos the giant Amish statue live in Pennsylvania. Both are tall, dark-haired men known for their unusual facial hair, strange style of dress, and habit of telling groaner jokes in an outrageous accent. Here is where the similarities end. Matt Lake did not stand outside Zinn's Diner for decades attracting customers. For his part, Amos has never taught science in grade school and does not live outside Philadelphia with his extraordinary wife, Caroline, and their son and daughter.

New interesting book: A Whole New Mind or 1000 Dollars and an Idea

My French Life

Author: Vicki Archer

A beautifully photographed romantic book about French style and culture-and making a new home in Provence

In 1999, Vicki Archer, with her husband and three children, made a lifelong dream a reality when she bought a seventeenth-century property in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. She spent three years lovingly restoring the farmhouse, bringing back to life the abandoned apple and pear orchards, and planting an olive grove of more than two thousand trees. In My French Life, Vicki shares an insider's view of life in France-from its landscapes, delicious food, and scents to its charming people. And she offers an intimate portrait of what it's like to adopt a new home on the other side of the globe. It's a personal tale of taking risks, facing challenges, and the joyous experience of falling in love with all things French.

With lavish four-color photography that captures the essence of French style, My French Life is a book to cherish. It is the perfect gift for the holidays.

Once in a Lifetime Trips or On This Earth

Once in a Lifetime Trips: The World's 50 Most Extraordinary and Memorable Travel Experiences

Author: Chris Santella

Fly-fish in the virgin waters of the Chilean fjords, arriving by helicopter; navigate Alaska on a boat as luxurious as a four-star hotel but small enough to sail where the big cruise ships can’t; embark on a private-jet tour to the great opera houses in Europe with behind-the-scenes passes: experience the classic links of the British Open. Once in a Lifetime Trips is a trove of ideas for travels that are unique, decadent, and off the beaten path.

Each trip is captured through stunning photography and an essay based on in-depth interviews with experts who have firsthand knowledge of the destination and itinerary. Once in a Lifetime Trips goes way beyond what a standard guide offers: these trips are intended to be distinctive events that you will remember for the rest of your life. Chris Santella distills each experience and describes just what makes it extraordinary–whether it’s the culture of the place, a venue’s incredible isolation, or the unique amenities available to the traveler. Organized by destination–on the ocean, on an island, in the jungle, in the mountains and the desert, in the country, in the city, in the sky–Once in a Lifetime Trips is as much a vicarious and thrilling reading experience as it is a source of ideas and inspiration for anyone in search of a remarkable journey.

Go to: The Starbucks Experience or The First Billion Is the Hardest

On This Earth: Photographs from East Africa

Author: Nick Brandt

Nick Brandt depicts the animals of East Africa with an intimacy and artistry unmatched by other photographers who choose wildlife as their subject. He creates these majestic sepia and blue-tone photos contrasting moments of quintessential stillness with bursts of dramatic action by engaging with these creatures on an exceptionally intimate level, without the customary use of a telephoto lens. Evocative of classical art, from dignified portraits to sweeping natural tableaux, Brandt's images artfully and simply capture animals in their natural states of being. With a foreword by Alice Sebold and an introduction by Jane Goodall, On This Earth is a gorgeous portfolio of some of the last wild animals and a heartfelt elegy to a vanishing world.

Spanish Phrases for Dummies or Sharper Your Knife The Less You Cry

Spanish Phrases for Dummies

Author: Susana Wald

The fun and easy way to speak Spanish
With Mexico the #1 international destination for Americans, over 14 million secondary school students enrolled in Spanish classes, and Spanish the primary language in many neighborhoods from L.A. to Miami, this should easily be the most popular title in our new phrase book series, following in the footsteps of Spanish For Dummies (0-7645-5194-9), which has sold more than 300,000 copies.
Susana Wald is a writer, teacher, and translator.

Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry: Love, Laughter, and Tears at the World's Most Famous Cooking School

Author: Kathleen Flinn

A delightful true story of food, Paris, and the fulfillment of a lifelong dream

In 2003, Kathleen Flinn, a thirty-six-year-old American living and working in London, returned from vacation to find that her corporate job had been eliminated. Ignoring her mother's advice that she get another job immediately or "never get hired anywhere ever again," Flinn instead cleared out her savings and moved to Paris to pursue a dream-a diploma from the famed Le Cordon Bleu cooking school. The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry is the touching and remarkably funny account of Flinn's transformation as she moves through the school's intense program and falls deeply in love along the way. Flinn interweaves more than two dozen recipes with a unique look inside Le Cordon Bleu amid battles with demanding chefs, competitive classmates, and her "wretchedly inadequate" French. Flinn offers a vibrant portrait of Paris, one in which the sights and sounds of the city's street markets and purveyors come alive in rich detail. The ultimate wish fulfillment book, her story is a true testament to pursuing a dream. Fans of Julie & Julia, Almost French, and Eat, Pray, Love will be amused, inspired, and richly rewarded by this seductive tale of romance, Paris, and French food.

Publishers Weekly

When the author, an American journalist and software executive working in London, is sacked from her high-powered job, she enrolls as a student at the Cordon Bleu school in Paris. With limited cooking skills and grasp of the French language, she gamely attempts to master the school's challenging curriculum of traditional French cuisine. As if she didn't have enough on her plate eviscerating fish and knocking out pâtéà choux, she determines to write a book about her experience and gets married along the way. The result is a readable if sentimental chronicle of that year in Paris in which her love life is explored in great detail, dirty weekends and all, and cooking features as a metaphor for self-discovery. Some readers may feel disappointed that the narrator's encounters with French cookery remain largely confined to her lessons at the Cordon Bleu. On those rare occasions when she ventures into the food-obsessed city, the descriptions of meals are glancing at best. Although her struggles with the language and lack of knowledge about the culture lend comic elements to the story (once, trying to order a pizza over the phone, she said, "Je suis une pizza"-I am a pizza), they, too, constrain the author's culinary explorations. (Oct.)

. . seems destined to earn an honored place on the crowded bookshelves of many foodie readers.

Kirkus Reviews

An American expatriate follows her dream to study at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. When 36-year-old software executive Flinn got fired in 2003, she was faced with a choice: She could look for another job or pursue her passion. Actually, it's two passions: cooking, and a man. While a corporate wage-slave, she feared making a commitment to Mike back in Seattle. Now unemployed, single and with no country to call home, nothing held her back. She called Mike, drained her savings, moved with him to Paris and started classes. Part memoir, part insider's look at the famed culinary institute where the world's elite chefs have been trained in the art of French haute cuisine, the text takes the form of chronological chapters interweaving lessons learned at the school with lessons learned about life. We meet characters both eccentric and multicultural, from the seemingly bipolar Gray Chef to a roster of far-flung classmates. The range of students from Europe, America, South America, Asia and the Middle East makes it apparent that French cuisine is now global, but Flinn merely touches on that theme. It's not the only potentially fascinating topic she scants; she barely seems to notice that Paris now competes with London, formerly the butt of many jokes about bad food, as the home of superlative dining. Instead, Flinn attempts to use cooking as a life metaphor, a dicey tactic when your personal revelations mostly resemble outtakes from Sex and the City. The book is best when she sticks to cooking, France's culinary history, diverse regional traditions and the challenges of meeting the impeccable standards of Le Cordon Bleu's demanding chefs. A fascinating look inside a famed elite institution, unnecessarilygarnished with lackluster autobiography. Agent: Larry Weissman/Larry Weissman, LLC

What People Are Saying

Elizabeth Gilbert
I can never get enough of true stories about people who stop in the middle of their life's journey to ask, 'What do I really want?' and then have the guts to actually go get it. Kathleen Flinn's tale of chasing her ultimate dream makes for a really lovely book-engaging, intelligent and surprisingly suspenseful. (Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love)

Michael Ruhlman
An engaging story about a fantasy fulfilled. It's Under the Tuscan Sun goes to cooking school. (Michael Ruhlman, author of The Elements of Cooking and The Soul of a Chef)

Bill Radke
A joy to read . . . A compelling story about learning to cook and learning to love at the same time, told with humility, humor, and passion. (Bill Radke, host of NPR's Weekend America)

Table of Contents:

Author's Note     ix
Prologue: This Is Not for Pretend     1
Basic Cuisine     5
Life Is Not a Dress Rehearsal     7
Lost in Translation     17
Culinary Boot Camp     25
Taking Stock     35
Memoirs of a Quiche     46
La Vie en Rose     56
No Bones About It     66
Splitting Hares     74
The Souffle Also Rises     83
As the Vegetables Turn     92
Final Exam-Basic     103
Intermediate Cuisine     113
Class Break: Spain     115
C'est la Vie, C'est la Guerre     118
A Week in Provence     128
Rites of Passage     134
The Silence of the Lamb     143
"I Am a Pizza for Kathleen"     150
A Sauce Thicker Than Blood     158
La Catastrophe Americaine     164
Bon Travail     171
Final exam-Intermediate     177
Superior Cuisine     183
Class Break: Normandy, then America     185
Back in Bleu     189
Great Expectations     202
Gods, Monsters, and Slaves     211
LaDanse     220
Bye-bye, Lobster     231
I Didn't Always Hate My Job     243
An American Hospital in Paris     249
Final Exam-Superior     259
Epilogue: Thanksgiving in Paris     271
Extra Recipes     275
Acknowledgments     279
Selected Bibliography     281
Index of Recipes     283
Menu Guide for Book Clubs     286