Rating: 
Summary: Great little book on Paris
Review: This is a great little book on the City of Paris but it is not the kind you read through once and then leave on the shelf. You will probably want to read parts of it at first and then keep returning as your interests and perspectives change. It won't be very useful as a guide book and will be enjoyed most by those who have already been to the City of Lights and loved it (who wouldn't love Paris?). What Kerper has done is compile a number of articles from just about everywhere and publish them in a single book. I didn't count them but there's a great big bunch of them. All of them are well written and some are by well-known writers ... James Baldwin and Saul Bellow, to name just a couple. All are done with the idea of bringing you closer to the spirit of Paris or to reveal a specific dimension of the city's inner life that may not have been so obvious to the reader. The arrangement is by theme, and before you get to the articles there are 74 pages of practical information that is, frankly, a lot better than what you find in some guide books, and it is all arranged alphabetically from accommodations to yellow pages. If you like having books with heart and soul (and maybe some wine and cheese) in your personal library, don't miss this one.
Rating:
Summary: Wow!!
Review: This is an awesome piece of work, Kerper's "work" mainly being knowing travel writing inside and out and collecting writing and essays from many different sources. I love her friendly, down-to-earth style, and many of the articles make me laugh out loud. The bibliographies and references are annotated, which means she's read everything and can direct the reader to other sources with aplomb and expertise. The only thing that would make this book better is if it were hard-bound, to keep forever because I am sure I will have to replace mine at some point due to wear and tear. The content is superb. It is not a book to guide you on a quick, 3 - 4 star meal/hotel/see-the-sights sort of trip. Rather, it provides resources and insights from many different people's perspectives. Culling the best from everything she came across while planning a trip, the reader is left with a concise scrapbook of travel to the City of Light. Along side my reading, I've started my own scrapbook, so that I can better know this thrilling and romantic city and be more prepared when I arrive, (unlike the first time, when I didn't know how to behave or communicate all all.) Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Wow!!
Review: This is an awesome piece of work, Kerper's "work" mainly being knowing travel writing inside and out and collecting writing and essays from many different sources. I love her friendly, down-to-earth style, and many of the articles make me laugh out loud. The bibliographies and references are annotated, which means she's read everything and can direct the reader to other sources with aplomb and expertise. The only thing that would make this book better is if it were hard-bound, to keep forever because I am sure I will have to replace mine at some point due to wear and tear. The content is superb. It is not a book to guide you on a quick, 3 - 4 star meal/hotel/see-the-sights sort of trip. Rather, it provides resources and insights from many different people's perspectives. Culling the best from everything she came across while planning a trip, the reader is left with a concise scrapbook of travel to the City of Light. Along side my reading, I've started my own scrapbook, so that I can better know this thrilling and romantic city and be more prepared when I arrive, (unlike the first time, when I didn't know how to behave or communicate all all.) Highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: This is not a book to take with you on your travels, read it before you go to get what you can out it, there is not enough in the articles to warrant carrying them with you. The format of this book is a collection of 55 different magazine articles that Ms Kerper has clipped, saved, and now grouped by subject. There are also 60 pages of the standard advice for travellers, and 66 pages of small type book reviews by Kerper interspersed throughout the book.
I was expecting better writing, or more useful information. A couple of the articles were quite good, one on French carosuels, and one on the French National Memory, to cite two of them. But after 614 pages of reading, the moral is that magazine articles are meant for the magazine format, not books. I would check this out of your library before spending the money. I think for some people this book would be right on the mark; for you it may be a 2 star or a 5 star.
| 
