I wish I liked it more. The over all story seemed fascinating, but I just couldn't get attached to any characters, including the art work. Maybe if I were more familiar with the loot itself...

Really good. Tells an interesting and little known story. I think many of us knew the Nazis were stealing art but the story of how it got recovered is fascinating.

What is it about art? Everyone has different tastes, but some art is just, well mind blowing isn't the word. We all share that gut reaction, evn if the pieces of art that evoke them are different from person to person.

War has been fought for art. True, WW-II wasn't one of them, but Hitler and his gang did sure steal some huge pieces.

Edsel's book details the work of the Monuments Men, a group (mostly Americans in this book) whose purpose was to recover and protect items of cultural importance, be it a church in the way of the Allies or stolen painting.

The book starts off slow, but when Edsel gets going, he really gets going. It is quite clear that he enjoys his subject and cares deeply about it. This book is a better read than [b:The Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe's Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War|227540|The Rape of Europa The Fate of Europe's Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War|Lynn H. Nicholas|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172877747s/227540.jpg|1768647], which deals with the same issue.

3.5

I loved the movie and after reading the book I feel that I have a much better perspective on the challenges of the Monuments Men and the mind-boggling amount of monuments and art they had to save and repatriate during and after WWII.

I love that books can go deeper and wider than a movie and this book doesn't disappoint on that front. Learning more about Rose Valland and James Rorimer and their lives after the main plot of the book (and movie) ends allowed me to form a deeper appreciation for the work they did during the war and how it informed their work afterwards. I can see Rorimer's influence in the way art is appreciated today.

Edsel starts the book by saying that he had to cut out the material focused on Italy. That book will be going on my "to read" list as soon as I'm done with this review.

Well research book about an almost forgotten, but very important, aspect of the WWII. Well written and easy to read. I am sure the movie will be nothing like the book but will still make people interested in this forgotten history.

The very detailed research was quite impressive. Unfortunately there were so many details that it was hard to keep track and it discouraged me from consistently reading the book. I certainly learned a lot.

I found this subject fascinating. While I always knew that Hitler & the Nazi's looted artwork, the amount of art taken and hidden was jaw dropping. The Monument Men were all true heroes. I haven't seen the movie - which I heard was not very good - but the book was outstanding. My only complaint is that the author moved the story around a lot which made it hard to follow at times. Otherwise I highly recommended it!

This is such an interesting subject, and one we seem to have forgotten when at war - protecting the culture items of individual countries. It might be because I listened to instead of read this, but at times it was a bit hard to keep what was happening where, straight.