Normally I'm not into historical non-fiction, but I'll make an exception for this book. _The Ninth Man_ tells what was happening in America during the 1940's with a personal twist that brings the facts to life. I encourage the purchase of this book, it is not for all ages but is defiantly a must read for anyone interested in spies and WWII.

Lots of fun. Corresponds to the historical record on the 8 Nazi spies almost perfectly, but still reads like a good spy novel.

"Rat Man in Paris" is about Etienne, a man living in Paris, in poverty, who begs the streets in a strange manner. He exposes a live rat to people who pass on the street, in the hope they will pay him something out of pity, or perhaps out of revulsion, to make him go away. He lives in a small apartment in squalid conditions. He meets Sharli, a sympathetic young woman, who takes kindly to him, almost mothering him.

Etienne is affected by a memory which boils to the surface now and again, of his parents killed by Nazis when he was a boy. He has heard that a Nazi war criminal is to be held in a prison nearby, and acts more wildly than ever. He tries to draw attention to his story, as if trying to exorcise the demonic memory of his childhood by proxy, by condemning this Nazi. Etienne cannot even be entirely sure this particular Nazi actually had anything to do with his parents, but he rants on the street about him nonetheless, fantasizing about vengeance, and wondering in psychic agony, how can this Nazi receive three meals a day in prison, while I starve? He feels the need to stage an event so spectacular it will engulf his painful past in the same flames which once engulfed his family's future.

Will Etienne cause a stir? Will he settle his conscience? Will Sharli help? Will she suffer as a result of his infatuation? Will his crusade end badly? Will it end at all? The reader will learn in due time. The book is interesting and generally well written, but Sharli, Etienne's female companion, is not as fleshed out as one might like. It is unclear why she is attracted to this strange character, why she wishes to be with him at all. Nonetheless, Paul West has a vibrant imagination, and his book deserves a look.

The superb historical novelist Paul West's greatest accomplishment is this short, unsentimental yet oddly moving love story between a Parisian vagabond and the young woman who (against all bourgeois judgement) cleans him up and falls strangely in love with him in occupied Paris. Loosely inspired by stories of sightings of a real life character who wandered the city of lights with a trained rat during the war, West's gritty, twisted love story is among the best three novels I have read from the 1980s, along with White Hotel and Libra. A strange, rewarding read.

The skits in the book are put together very well. They do get the point across, and children will learn something from the skit. I wouldn't try it with older children. Had I known it was for ages 3-9 (wasn't mentioned in the online description of the book), I would not have purchased it for my class (ages 10-12), but I will give it to another teacher who will get more use out of it than I will.

Being 30 I could not, in good conscience, give this book the full five stars. I read it in sixth grade and re-read it only a couple of months ago. The writing style is a little simplistic and the background not as full as I would like, yet it still stands as a classic. It is the re-working of one branch of the Mabinogion - equate it with the Bullfinch of Welsh mythology. It tells the story of the demigod children of Llyr, making the magic of myth seem plausible. Let me warn you, however, Celts apparently have a well-developed sense of melancholy and there are no happy endings to any of their tales. There are tragic moments and brutal events but there are also poignant passages. The subject of Celtic mythology is much more popular today than in 1981, but few have related it with the spirit of Ms. Walton's work. It was her introduction in this volume to which I credit my abiding interest to this day. I highly recommend this story to anyone over the age of ten.

"This masterful study charts the extensive common ground and telling differences between two widely separated coal-mining communities: Lanarkshire, in the Clyde Valley of southwest Scotland, and the northern Illinois coalfield that became a prime destination for skilled Scottish migrant miners in the mid-nineteenth century.

"Challenging the prevailing exceptionalist paradigm of labor history, John Laslett examines the social, economic, and political context of each of these communities in generous detail. He traces the progressive heightening of class consciousness as the coal industry evolved from skilled hand labor to mechanized extraction and the escalating hostility between miners and mineowners as their interests split along class lines. Examining the rise of militant industrial unionism in both areas, Laslett provides a sophisticated explanation of the American and Scottish miners' divergent approaches to collectivist solutions.

"Based on a profound knowledge of both communities, Colliers across the Sea tells a compelling story of democratic aspirations, community, and industrial transformation's human costs."

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"An exceptional work of scholarship. . . . Laslett's findings are important and will be widely noticed, debated, and assimilated into the labor history canon." - David Brody, author of Steelworkers in America

Over the years I have read many books about the Battle of Britain and of those I consider this the best. It is extremely well written and describes how the challenges were met even though the pilots were so fatigued. Some bits of humour (Come and meet 145 squadron.Nice chaps-all two of them )throughout it.Brief mention of three American pilots who later left to join the Eagle Squadron.One of them(Shorty Keogh) was so small(4ft 10in) he had to use two air cushions and his parachute pack to see through the windscreen of his Spitfire.

Like the other major volume in the series ("Films") this is a really large, interesting book that has room for improvement. There's generally a very good (if superficial) write-up of all the world's major directors (except Mikio Naruse, Jiri Trnka, etc.) and quite a few of its minor (read: mediocre Hollywood) directors. The book gives a rundown of each director's films and a list of writings by/about each director. The problem is that the folks doing the writing aren't usually experts on who they're writing about, or they seem indifferent towards them. Why not get Ray Carney to write about John Cassavetes instead of Bill Wine? How about Tony Raynes on Edward Yang? In the end there often tends to be precious little piercing insight into the subjects of the book and so in the end "Directors" has less impact than it could. However limited it may be, "Directors" is still a wonderfully informative read because of its sheer scope, and its willingness to include current filmmakers is admirable.

This YA novel is a well-written and engrossing look into the Chicago jazz scene of the late 1920s. 12-year-old Paulie (who today would probably be diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder) finds his calling in learning to play jazz cornet. But his father wants him to enter the plumbing business, and even with his mother's support, Paulie can't keep his grades up enough to get permission to pursue his music. Paulie eventually has to choose -- lose his music, or lose his family? Published in 1996, this YA novel is now, sadly, out of print.

This excellent, well written ,thoroughly researched book is an interesting and compelling read. My husband bought it for me following one of his regular sojourns to Hay-on-Wye where he searches for fishing books and the likes. I had started to collect books on the Blues to compliment my small collection of Albums,C.Ds even a few 78s. and so considered this biography an aside to the mainstream of my type of music. How wrong some of your assumptions can be! Collier dissects the man his music and the age in which he lived -dispelling many of the myths and giving factual credence to certain claims made by Armstrong and others alike. So,having picked up the book,out of politeness and consideration to my dear husband (!) I starting to flick through reading an odd passage here and there and then found that I had gone back to the very begining and was hooked 'line and sinker 'on the narrative. I am in awe of the depth of research /detective work the author has made on a man whom he obviously enjoyed researching with out any hint of hero worship or sycophancy, but! when it came to the technical abilities of his subject on his cornet playing well- there the author did leave me in ignorance (and boredom)- as not being in the least musically talented I found the discriptive passages on such matters way over my head and, I imgine, that of other readers with similar omissions in their musical education!! The author surmises that some Jazz enthusiasts may denigrate Armstrongs' later performances to that of genial buffoon, all round entertainer and despise this career change for what they take to be a sell out to white entertainment. But Collier can ,having made a thorough study of the man, make assumptions based on fact and not on personal fancy or nebulous notions as some do,that Armstrong fullfilled his ambition of becoming an entertainer which he set out to become but on route became one of the most innovative and influential and skilled exponents of Jazz that the world has ever seen. As Armstrongs' popularity and adulation grew among the general public so it waned on the Jazz circuit as purists disliked the way Armstrong courted popularity. Elitists often think the artist should suffer for his art form and saw Armstrong as a traitor to this. But, when, as you do here, see the history of the man his music, his suffering , etc., all put into the context of the social backdrop that Collier does so expertly you are leftin no doubt of the sincerity of both biographer and subject matter. A great piece of literature!