Books

Tastes of Paradise #
The Official History of the Metropolitan Police
Love for Sale: A Global History of Prostitution
Days of the Knights: A Tale of Castles and Battles (DK Eyewitness Readers: Level 4 (Paperback))
Titanic: The Disaster That Shocked the World (DK Eyewitness Readers: Level 3 (Paperback))
Who Were the Vikings? (Usborne Starting Point History (Paperback))
A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East
Dickens's Dictionary of London 1888: An Unconventional Handbook
Knot Gardens and Parterres: A History of the Knot Garden and How to Make One Today
India: A History
Times Past: The Story of Glasgow
The Steel Bonnets: Story of the Anglo-Scottish Border Reivers
The Downing Street Years
A History of the Jews
Scotland: The Story of a Nation
The Later Roman Empire (Fontana History of the Ancient World S.)
The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary
The Scottish Nation: 1700-2000
Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka: Operation Reinhard Death Camps
Stirling's Men: The Inside History of the SAS in World War II
The Borough Market Book: From Roots to Renaissance
The New Penguin Atlas of Ancient History
The Spanish Civil War
A History of Venice
Hiroshima (Penguin Modern Classics)

Average customer rating:

A Matter of Usage
Not as piquant as I had hoped...
Left me wanting more
Engaging and readable
Will Leave You Hungry For More

Tastes of Paradise
Wolfgang Schivelbusch
Manufacturer: Pantheon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Customs & Traditions | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Social History | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books

Look Inside History Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Nonfiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History
Forces of Habit: Drugs and the Making of the Modern World
The Railway Journey: The Industrialization and Perception of Time and Space
The Heritage of World Civilizations: Volume Two since 1500 (7th Edition)
Disenchanted Night: The Industrialization of Light in the Nineteenth Century

ASIN: 0394579844
Release Date: 1992-07-07

Customer Reviews:

A Matter of Usage.......2006-11-29

I must beg to differ with my fellow reviewers about
the merits of this book. I do agree that the treatment
of individual spices is cursory and that the lack of
an index is a disappointment. What I find to praise
here is perhaps the very thing that others find to blame.

Schivelbusch has a point of view that is rooted in
wanting to discover the attitudes, behavior and beliefs
that underlay the European fascination with spicing foods.
He offers a coherent theory-a combination of exoticism and
social climbing. Then examines the consequences of this
fascination in art, literature and society at large.

So this is not an encyclopedia or even a particularly
good guide to sources. Some of that can be better found
in drier accounts like Andrew Dalby's DANGEROUS TASTES.

TASTES OF PARADISE is an accessible and interesting
account of the place that spices, stimulants and intoxicants
have in our world. It is a brisk chronicle of what we have
done with them and what they have done to us, and as that
I recommend it hightly.

--Lynn Hoffman, author of THE NEW SHORT COURSE IN WINE and
the forthcoming novel bang BANG from Kunati Books.ISBN 9781601640005

Not as piquant as I had hoped..........2002-02-06

This just had to be a subject right up my alley. Spices? I live in Texas where Tabasco is a condiment (and not a spice) and jalapenos are considered vegetables. Stimulants? I have a coffee cup surgically attached to my hand and Brazilian music runs constantly through my head. Intoxicants? I worship beer. What could be better than a book about all three subjects?

Tastes of Paradise considers the social use of and social importance of spices, stimulants, and intoxicants largely from a Western point of view. It covers the use of spices, the coffee-related ethic of the middle class, chocolate, the rise of smoking and snuff, alchohol and the industrial revolution, and the rituals and places surrounding our drinking. What more could we talk about?

Turns out there's a lot more we could talk about, and what would be better is a book that really covers all three subjects. My disappointment boils down to three basic complaints against the book. The first is by far the broadest. In including "a social history" in the title, Schivelbusch focuses almost exclusively on the social effect of the use of the particular stimulant or intoxicant. Nowhere does he discuss the broader history of the item or the impact of the item on society (read "The True History of Chocolate" for a broader and more thorough presentation on chocolate, for example). My second complaint regards his treatment of specific subjects. Spices get remarkably short shrift (twelve pages total; less space than the discussion of drinking rituals; "Nathaniel's Nutmeg" is a better presentation on spices as a whole), and tea is only considered from the point of view of England (I'm pretty sure that the Chinese and Japanese drank tea, and that there's some social history there). Finally, there are more illustrations in this book than in most elementary school readers.

The book is immensely readable, does include -some- interesting illustrations, and covers admirably the impact on western society of the most popular stimulants and intoxicants from the 1600's to the late 1800's. However, there's an enormous amount that isn't there (except for the extra illustrations; those are presented wholesale), and in that the book disappoints.

Left me wanting more.......2001-05-10

And I see from the reviews below that I wasn't the only one. The author has really picked a fascinating subject, and brings it to life, weaving together strands of economics, sociology, geography, and chemistry to explain some of the impacts that these now-commonplace items have had on Western culture. (And what impacts our culture has had on the items - did you know that chocolate was a drink for monks and aristocrats before it became a snack for children?)

But the book is far too short. Many subjects are merely glanced over, and the illustrations, in addition to being so numerous as to be suspected of being filler, are often dark and hard to make out. I would have rather seen the author do a book this size on any one of the various subjects at hand - just coffee, say, or just pepper - and really explored it in depth.

Engaging and readable.......2000-08-09

Schivelbusch's Tastes of Paradise provides a refreshingly light-hearted, yet engaging glimpse at some of the substances which, through our stomachs, lungs, and palates, have played a not insignificant role in personal and cultural interactions of European civilizations. Concentrating primarily on western societies between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, Schivelbusch devotes over 50 pages to each of the subjects of coffee, tobacco, and alcohol; he also includes ample discussion of the historical role of chocolate, spices, and nineteenth-century opiates. I read this book as part of a college-level World History class (middle ages- present) and found it to be an enjoyable and worthwhile complement to novels, primary sources, and textbook readings we studied. Spread out in small doses over the course of the semester, it provided an unusual vantage point from which major themes such as Industrialism, Christianity, Romanticism, and social class structures could be more readily understood. Over 100 black-and-white reproductions of period art enhance Schivelbusch's lively discussion of the material. Without suggesting that these substances played an unrealistically inflated role in history, Schivelbusch offers a highly accessible discussion equally suitable for the student or casual reader.

Will Leave You Hungry For More.......1999-09-23

I enjoyed this book. It is well written and interesting and I learned quite a bit. The reason I only gave it 3 stars is that the book is too short. There are sections where you wish Mr. Schivelbusch had fleshed things out a bit. The book has many interesting illustrations but in a 228 page book over 100 pages of illustrations are just too much! So, be forewarned! If you are looking for some depth to sink your teeth into this is not the book for you. However, if you are satisfied by small portions than by all means.....Bon Appetit!

A Taste of Paradise (Leisure Historical Romance)

Average customer rating:

Disappointing
WHERE IS PARADISE
Read this expecting a Connie Mason story, not a deep and haunting historical tale.
Not the same story again!!
HISTORICAL ROMANCE AT IT'S BEST!

A Taste of Paradise (Leisure Historical Romance)
Connie Mason
Manufacturer: Leisure Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

Historical | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Romance | Subjects | Books

General | Historical | Romance | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Romance Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

General | Romance | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books

All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

A Knight's Honor
A Taste of Sin
Lord of the Night (Love Spell Historical Romance)
The Last Rogue
Pure Temptation (Leisure Historical Romance)

ASIN: 0843954647

Customer Reviews:

Disappointing.......2006-11-17

I really wanted to give this book 2.5 stars. The characters drove me crazy back and forth. The heroine of the book new Rigby was after her but yet she continued to put herself in these situations. The book was basically tiring. Like others reviewers stated your better off with Ms. Mason's older books like the Black Knight and excellent read.

WHERE IS PARADISE.......2006-06-26

I didn't like this book. Some romance novels you get because they are historical romances and others because they are steamy romances. This book starts with a steamy sex scene, so one would figure that the rest of the book will have steamy sex scenes, but it doesn't. Several characters were very unlikable, the historical story about Jamiaca was not very interesting and some of the sex scenes were very ordinary. It was a bizarre romance novel.

Read this expecting a Connie Mason story, not a deep and haunting historical tale........2006-06-23

Those of us who have read hundreds of romance novels are very familiar with Mason's style. I read Connie Mason stories after I have read something deep and haunting. (i.e. Marsha Canham's "Blood of Roses" series, Julia Garnett's "The Scotsman", Shannon Drake's "Come the Morning" series, etc.) After being emotionally blown away, I need to read something light and simple. Mason's books are softer soap opera type stories. A very good buffer between the soul- haunting stories.
I also like the fact that Mason strives to present places and historical events that most other authors never touch. When you want to experience a land and culture that has not been used time and time again, Mason has some good books to choose from. "A Taste of Paradise" is one of those books. It is a journey to the tropical island of Jamaica. The slave tragedy of 1831 is at it's root.

The story:

Christian Radcliff is an Englishman who is haunted by guilt. Seven years ago he killed his best friend in a duel over a woman. In his distress, Chris took to the sea. After years of running a shipping business, he has made himself rich. He is ready for a new adventure. He finds it in Jamaica. He wins a sugarcane plantation in a card game. This plantation will be his future. Despite how far he has come, he can not forget the woman he loved, nor forgive himself for killing his friend over her.

Sophia Carlisle is a high- born English lady. However, her father and step- brother have put the family in dept. At the age of seventeen she fell in love with Christian Radcliff. She desperately wants to marry Chris, but her father forces her to accept the proposal of Chris's wealthy best friend, Desmond. To her horror, the two friends duel for her hand. Desmond is killed. Chris leaves England in his sorrow. Now Sophia is left alone to bare the scandal. Her father whisks her away to the country where the family will hide in shame.

Seven years later, Sophia's father is dead. Her step- brother, Rayford, has gambled away what little the family had left. He owes money to several people. The worst dept being 500 pounds owed to a plantation owner, Rigby. When Rigby threatens to throw Rayford in debtors prison, Rayford agrees to sell Sophia's virginity to Rigby in exchange for the cancelling of his dept. Sophia escapes Rigby, hiding on a ship in the harbor. Little does she know, the ship is owned by her lost love, Christian Radcliff.

By the time Christian finds Sophia on his ship, it is too late to turn the ship around and return her to England. His only choice is to bring her along to Jamaica and then put her on a different ship back to England. However, when Sophia reaches Jamaica she falls instantly in love with the island. She makes her own plans to stay and build a new life for herself.

While searching for a governess position, Sophia is horrified when she is captured by Rigby. Chris manages to save her from his grasp, but now knows he has no choice but to give her a safe place to stay in his home. Chris wants Sophia badly, but is too guilt- ridden over his friend's death to accept his feelings for her. Sophia loves Chris dearly. She prays Chris will find the freedom to love her back.

Thousands of slaves are kept working at Jamaica's various plantations. Chris, being a man of English beliefs in freedom, frees his slaves and offers to have them work for pay. Surrounding plantation owners are furious. They believe his act will cause their already defiant slaves to rebel. In the face of a slave uprising, Chris feels he must send Sophia to the safety of his brother's home in England. To Sophia, this feels like the ultimate rejection. She decides to never return to Chris, even when Jamaica becomes safe. Now Chris is desperate to win her back.

Not the same story again!!.......2006-05-11

Is it just me or are all of Connie's books sounding the same? This story had no real plot and the characters were not developed at all. What happened to the great books that she use to write? I keep buying her books thinking that they will be better the next time, but they never are. I would advise readers to read her earlier books. Don't even waste your money or time on this book!

HISTORICAL ROMANCE AT IT'S BEST!.......2006-04-01

OK, THIS IS HOW IT IS! SULTRY, SENSUAL, SEXY-- AND A TRUE LOVE STORY THAT CONNIE WRITES SO WELL. WITH JAMAICA AS THE SETTING FOR THIS HISTORICALLY CORRECT TALE, YOU WILL BE SWEPT AWAY WITH THE SEA OF ROMANCE, DESIRE, TREACHERY, GUILT, AND REMORSE. YOU HAVE TWO EQUALLY STRONG PERSONALITIES, HERO AND HEROINE. EACH FOR THIER OWN REASONS, DENYING THEY LOVE EACH OTHER. FOR HOURS OF PURE READING ENJOYMENT, AND SOME SPICEY SEX,I HIGHLY RECOMMEND PICKING UP THIS BOOK.

A Taste Of Paradise (Silhouette Romance)

Average customer rating:

A Taste Of Paradise (Silhouette Romance)
Patricia Thayer
Manufacturer: Silhouette
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

General | Romance | Subjects | Books

Silhouette Romance | Series | Romance | Subjects | Books

General | Contemporary | Romance | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Romance Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Familiar Adversaries (Silhouette Romance)
Child For Cade (The Texas Brotherhood) (Silhouette Romance, No 1524)

ASIN: 0373197705

The Exotic Tastes of Paradise, The Art of Sri Lankan Cooking

Average customer rating:

The Exotic Tastes of Paradise, The Art of Sri Lankan Cooking
Felicia Wakwella Sorensen
Manufacturer: Lincoln Green Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000HVMICK

Product Description

Includes "23 new fiery recipes added to the most famous curry book in the world."

A Taste of Tradition: Paradise Lutheran Church 1947-1997

Average customer rating:

A Taste of Tradition: Paradise Lutheran Church 1947-1997
Paradise, California Members and Friends of Paradise Lutheran Church
Manufacturer: Cookbooks By Morris Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Ring-bound

General | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000QYZNDY

Average customer rating:

A Taste of Paradise
Margaret Mayo
Manufacturer: Harlequin Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000EZOZ5C

A Taste of Paradise (Lythway Large Print Books)

Average customer rating:

A Taste of Paradise (Lythway Large Print Books)
Margaret Mayo
Manufacturer: Lythway
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Romance | Subjects | Books

Average customer rating:

A Taste of Paradise
Michael Mighty
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000BRTNTG

3 Book Set - PERILOUS WATERS /AFRAID TO LOVE /A TASTE OF PARADISE

Average customer rating:

3 Book Set - PERILOUS WATERS /AFRAID TO LOVE /A TASTE OF PARADISE
Margaret Mayo
Manufacturer: Harlequin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000LUE9X8

Average customer rating:

Great Vacation Read
Paradise Awaits You
A Captivating Read

A Taste of Paradise (Arabesque)
Marcia King-Gamble
Manufacturer: Kimani Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

General | Romance | Subjects | Books

Multicultural | Romance | Subjects | Books

Arabesque | Series | Romance | Subjects | Books

General | Contemporary | Romance | Subjects | Books

Caribbean | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Romance | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books

Multicultural | Romance | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books

All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Then I Found You (Arabesque)
Love Me or Leave Me (Arabesque)
The Next Best Thing (Arabesque)
With Open Arms (Arabesque)
Dare to Love (Arabesque)

ASIN: 1583146199

Customer Reviews:

Great Vacation Read.......2005-09-01

I read this book while sitting on a hot sunny beach and it was easy to visualize the exotic island location that the author described so well. The characters have depth, especially the hero, who is a recovering alcoholic with a tragic past that makes him reluctant to fall in love with the heroine.
There is also an action subplot that creates intrigue and helps to move the main story along. If you want to be entertained by a sexy book with well crafter characters, pack this one in your suitcase when you go on vacation. Better yet, curl up on your sofa in the middle of winter and pretend you're in Fiji drinking a glass of coconut water with Ben Fuller.

Paradise Awaits You.......2005-08-26

Imagine waking up to a beautiful sunset and having the tranquility of the bluest ocean at your front door. It all sounds too good to be true, but for Jillian Gray it's part of her job. Unfortunately, she doesn't have much time to enjoy it. Jillian is employed with Elite, a company whose main goal is buying and refurbishing failing resorts. A promotion to vice president will be hers if she is successful in obtaining her next assignment. When she arrives at the Bula Resort in Taveuni, Fiji, Jillian feels the owner should be willing to sell at a fraction of the cost, because of its condition. As luck would have it, on her first day on the island she twists her ankle. When Benjamin Fuller comes to assist her, she realizes that she has seen him before.

Ben, a recovering alcoholic, came to Taveuni on a vacation to heal from the untimely death of his wife and children. He has fallen in love with the Bula Resort and has plans to purchase it. After Jillian's accident, Ben finds himself, not only spending a lot of time with her, but falling in love as well. When he discovers that Elite is also trying to purchase the resort, is he willing to give in and let the chips fall where they may?

Marcia King-Gamble has penned a well-written novel based on finding love and happiness. The novel is filled with romance and enough suspense to keep you entertained. The captivating storyline and characterization paves the way for a wonderful ending. Pack your bags, A TASTE OF PARADISE...waits.

Reviewed by Pamela Bolden
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

A Captivating Read.......2005-07-15

Jillian Gray has always had one goal in mind: To prove to herself that a black woman can attain high success in a predominately white corporate world. Yet, when that goal is within inches of her grasp, the reality that she will be half a world away from Ben Fuller, the man she has grown to love, strikes hard. Can she give up a life-time dream to be at the top of her career? Can she turn down the only man who has become a real dream in her own life?

Romance and spicy passion blend on this tropical island, but Marcia King-Gamble also creates a highly suspensful setting when strange and dangerous things begin happening and Ben just might be suspect number one. Definitely a page-turner.

Books:

Books