Looking for a contrast to that old standby, Michelin's Green Guide to Paris? Designed to catch the eye of those raised on TV and the Internet, this book uses bold colors and graphics to convey standard information. But don't be deceived by the layout; the guide is replete with useful facts on sights, transportation, lodging, food and more. The entertainment section reflects current tastes (reggae, live jazz, blues) as well as standard tourist fare (stage, theater, opera, film). Particularly appealing are the descriptions of the different Parisian neighborhoods contrasting the Islands, the Latin Quarter, the Left Bank, and the Right Bank, among others. The end maps will assist both new and experienced visitors to Paris. The five detailed indexes cover books, maps, streets, places of interest, and Metro stations. This refreshing and entertaining guide is recommended for all travel collections.

Eyewittness city guides bill themselves as "the guides that show you what others only tell you" and indeed, spectacular illustrations are one of their strongest points. Every page of an Eyewittness guide is filled with beautiful color photographs, maps, drawings and diagrams that bring popular tourist destinations to life. Each guide color-codes the city's districts or neighborhoods, making it easy for the readers to know at a glance just where they are in the book - and where they want to go.

Our age doesn't have a lock on outspoken women, as Vicki Leon proves in this impudent, flippant history of the Middle Ages. In the 1600s, Lady Castlehaven charged her husband with rape and had his connubial rights - and head - removed. Prioress Eglentyne, who appears in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, fell afoul of clerical colleagues by ignoring rules about "dress, dogs, dances" and worse yet, "wandering in the world". And let's not Forget Isabel, Queen of Castile, patron of Columbus, and wife of Ferdinand. Her marriage motto was "They rule with equal rights and both excel, Isabel as much as Ferdinand, Ferdinand as much as Isabel."

Introducing some of history's most dangerous, outrageous, and flamboyant women, Uppity Women of the Renaissance introduces readers to ex-nun Catalina de Erauso, who dueled, drank, and cross-dressed her way through Spain and North America; Chiyome, who started a profitable business renting out female ninjas, called "deadly flowers," in 16-century Japan; and Zubayda, an Arab engineer who, when she wasn't busy building aqueducts, roads, or entire cities, found time to throw lavish, Martha Stewart-style parties.

Okay, you've heard of Sappho, Nefertiti, maybe even the pharaoh Hatshepsut and the warrior queen Tomyris. But what about the murderous Macedonian queen Arsinoe, the Talmudic teacher Beruria, the Greek priestess Lysimache, or Audata-Eurydice, Philip of Macedon's horse-riding Illyrian queen? And then there is Kisaya, a Sumerian slave who sued for the right to choose her own husband.

With guts, great-heartedness, and a certain grim determination, the extraordinary women profiled in Uppity Women of the New World rose to many occasions and grandly surpassed them, despite the hardships in their time. These underrepresented women of history lived in an age when the term "global" first became a word and tenaciously carved out an existence that had not previously been available to them. Covering the first centuries of colonization of the Americas, New Zealand, and Australia, Uppity Women of the New World profiles 220 adventurous women and reflects a time when they ran businesses, owned land, handled and hustled money, fought for their respective countries and beliefs, and dallied in exploration.

Rendered by women artists and writers, these portraits illuminate the most influential women of our time. Liv Ullman marvels at Anne Frank's faith in the face of atrocity. Claudia Roth Pierpont explores how Virginia Woolf's atypical persona informed literature for the next hundred years. Camille Paglia champions Amelia Earhart as a pioneer who invaded the male world. The book also celebrates the fire of Angela Davis, the courage of Aung San Suu Kyi, the brains of Eleanor Roosevelt, and the brio of Ella Fitzgerald. The essays are accompanied by striking duotone photographs by such photographers as Alfred Stieglitz, Man Ray, and Cecil Beaton. Pairings include Joan Didion on Georgia O'Keeffe, Terry Tempest Williams on Rachel Carson, and Gloria Steinem on Marilyn Monroe.

For more than 100 years, women have been a vital force in shaping the movies we see today. In 1896, young French producer-director Alice Guy became the world's first woman filmmaker, two years after Thomas Edison demonstrated the Kinetoscope in Paris and a year after the brothers Lumiare projected their first film. Guy may very well have been the first director to present a story on film, and she should be celebrated for her incredible achievement. But her 30-year career as an independent film director was nearly forgotten by 1953 when the French government very belatedly awarded the 80-year-old filmmaker the Legion of Honor. Since the days of Guy's pioneering, many women have contributed significantly to the making of movies, working behind the camera as directors, producers, animators, cinematographers, editors, screenwriters, costume designers, and art directors. This often-overlooked part of the historic and contemporary film industry is captured in the St. James Women Filmmakers Encyclopedia.