Shadow The Books

The Long Shadow kept me company as I rode for 3 1/2 days on the Alaska ferry from Juneau, AK to Bellingham, WA. I loved it! It is rich with descriptions that helped me picture the places and experiences of the characters while the plot kept me interested at every turn. But it was the last couple pages from the end that brought me to tears, literally. Amazed and delighted, I highly recommend this book.

Some books are meant to be savored, and Loretta Proctor's The Long Shadow is definitely one of them! As rich in imagery as it is, history, this author's amazing command of the English language, combined with a beautifully poetic writing style make this novel a pleasure to read. I will definitely be looking for more titles by Ms. Proctor!

Although this excellent book came out in 1989, it remains highly relevant, for it takes an historian's view to place current events in their larger context, to successfully interpret the long shadow of the past--antique cultures steeped in political volatility--and show its effect on the present.

A case in point: In April 1981 a semi-official Egyptian weekly pronounced Ibn Taymiya, the renowned Syrian theologian who lived from 1268 to 1328, the most harmful influence on Egypt's youth. A few months later, Ibn Taymiya became the basis for the actions of 3 of Anwar Sadat's 4 assassins, who had read him extensively.

Pipes divided the book into 5 sections, each including 4 or 5 articles. He groups them somewhat loosely and the articles run the gamut.

Islam and Public Life first discusses fundamentalist views of America and Russia, also touching on how the secular, traditional and reform branches of Islam relate to public life. It next examines religious similarities between Judaism and Islam--both of which stress correct action, compared with Christianity's focus on faith. Pipes shows the far-reaching extent of Muslim anti-Semitism, which stemmed from a patronizing view of other religions that became virulently anti-Jewish in the 20th century--and found welcome among Western Protestants, human rights activists, reporters, academic committees and even liberals seeking a "respectable forum in which to vent their own views about Jews." Pipes also covers the Muslims of Central Asia--which border Taliban Afghanistan's fundamentalist hotbed.

A section on the Persian Gulf attributes the origins of the Iraq-Iran war not to religious differences, but to economic and geographic factors--including the Shatt al-'Arab River and its vast water resources. Pipes also discusses the dangers that oil wealth poses to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Libya. The oil windfall made these desert sheikdoms dependent on a continued oil boom, unless new sources of income could be found. So far, none have emerged. Pipes praised Kuwait in 1986 when its government refused to buckle under US pressure to release imprisoned terrorists, and later toured the oil state as the guest of Minister of Information, Sheik Nasir. He found the Bedouin descendants' grand hospitality and intellect reflective of the Arabian Nights. Next, he considered the Saudi Arabian kingdom formed by Wahhabi leader Abd al-Aziz, dissecting various histories, including Peter Mansfield's The New Arabians, funded by the Bechtel Corporation.

Pipes' prescient take on the Arab-Israeli conflict also still holds value. The conflict is fueled, he believes, not by Israel but by the conflicting claims of Palestinian separatists, Arab nationalists and the Jordanian and Syrian governments, among others, over Palestine and its boundaries. The latters' perpetual incapacity to unify stems from irreconcilable goals. An Arab government's sponsorship of the PLO grows, he wrote, proportionate to its distance from Israel. Pipes considered no Arab nation eager to end the conflict. By implication, he believed that nothing Israel could do unilaterally would improve the conflict's complexion. Were the PLO, fundamentalists or Syria to inherit the Arab claim, he predicted that the conflict would last longer--which is precisely what happened with Arafat's violent rejection of Oslo in 2000. Pan-Arabism spawned the PLO, prompting Saudi Arabia to give Arafat's organization $250 million a year by the late 1970s, and other oil states, smaller sums. But this funding dictated that PLO behavior would reflect weighted-Arab demands for Israel's destruction, more than Palestinian needs. Meanwhile, the PLO dictatorship brutalizes its own people, as evidenced during its reign of terror in Southern Lebanon from 1975 through 1982.

Another real gem is the section on terrorism. Pipes provides background for suicide terrorism, which is not rooted so much in Islam as in state-sponsorship. The first major instance of suicide terror was the 1981 destruction of the Iraqi embassy in Beirut, which killed 27 and wounded over 100. The phenomenon picked up political steam with the 1982 murder of Lebanon's Bashir Jumayyil and went international with the 1983 bombing of the US embassy in Beirut, which killed 63. Later the same year, a truck bomb killed 241 US servicemen, also in Lebanon. State sponsorship, he shows, was behind most suicidal actions. Many suicides were recruited via blackmail or under other duress. The way to combat it, he wrote, is to punish states that sponsor this violence.

And finally, for the finale, we learn pointedly what is wrong with media coverage of the Middle East. "Put simply, American journalists are interested in only two topics in the Middle East: Israel and the United States. Whatever takes place that is related to these countries is amplified...;whatever does not is ignored." From 1972 to 1980, for example, ABC, CBS and NBC devoted an average of 98.4 minutes annually to Israel, only 54.7 minutes to Egypt, 42.4 minutes to the PLO, 25.7 minutes to Syria, 18.4 minutes to Lebanon, 12.7 minutes to Saudi Arabia, 8.5 to Jordan and 7.2 to Iraq. But the US and the Middle East won an average of 153 minutes of coverage annually. "Israel is imagined to be more powerful than it really is because it is watched so closely," Pipes writes. Similarly, attention given to Palestinian refugees far is out of proportion to their suffering, which in any case is caused by their own leaders' refusal to accept peace. During the same era far greater numbers of Vietnamese, Cambodian, Afghan, Somali and other refugees , whose ranks now include some 2 million Sudanese, suffered far worse tribulations, which shamefully got far less press attention. Being overexposed, Pipes rightly concludes, means that Israel is "held to impossible moral standards." Israel is measured "not in relation to [its enemies] or other states, but in relation to abstract ideals."

Pipes offers 10 times the wisdom of many other volumes, despite the book's age. Alyssa A. Lappen

This book came out fifteen years ago, but it is still worth reading now. One benefit is that we can be sure it hasn't been influenced by more recent events!

Pipes points out that he writes as an historian, placing events in their larger historical context. And that there are two main factors that make this perspective worthwhile. First, there is the feeling that things today are going poorly, which leads to a fascination with the past. Second is the unsettled politics which make recent events hard to explain unless one can put them in a larger context.

There's an essay about the risks of supporting fundamentalist Muslims against communism, something we all should have taken more seriously. There's an article comparing Jewish and Muslim life, and pointing out that in both religions, people are becoming less observant of traditions, and that as a result, there has been more emphasis on faith in both religions, making them both a little more like Christianity in that respect. There's another fine essay about the roots of Muslim antisemitism and Western receptivity to it. And some interesting material about the Muslims of Central Asia (my ancestors!) as part of the then Soviet Empire. We also get to read about the origins of the Iraq-Iran war.

We discover how oil-rich Saudi Arabia and Kuwait treat foreign workers (mostly Muslim Arabs themselves). And there is a (pre-invasion) analysis of Kuwait in particular: it has become very rich from its oil. What will it do with all that wealth? Anything useful?

We all know that many Arabs want to get rid of Israel. Pipes asks what they want to replace it by. A bigger Syria? A bigger Jordan? A Pan-Arab nation? A local Arab tyrant? A fundamentalist state? A nation of local residents? And he asks why Arafat was always so unsuccessful militarily. Most folks who keep losing battles either start winning or get replaced. Why was Arafat so successful at getting support even though he never accomplished anything of value to anyone in the region? Pipes explains that Arafat's support came from Arab states, not from local Arabs.

There's an article on suicide terrorism, "the new scourge," which also ought to have been taken more seriously fifteen years ago.

An excellent essay deals with the way President Carter mishandled the Iran hostage situation. Objectively, Carter did a terrible job here, allowing American foreign policy to be determined "on the interests of a handful of individuals." Pipes predicted that this could set a precedent for more American helplessness when confronted by terrorists.

Three of the more interesting articles deal with the United States and the Middle East. The author points out that the debate between American pro-Israeli and anti-Israeli camps crosses party lines. One can be liberal or conservative and support either side. The pro-Israeli side sees the Arab conflict with Israel as a symptom of Arab instability. It recommends Arab reform and says that were Israel to vanish, all the Arab problems would remain. The anti-Israeli side sees the Arab conflict with Israel as a cause of Arab instability. It blames Israel for all the problems between the Arabs and the West and recommends doing something about Israel. It says that were Israel to vanish, we'd all live in peace together, our problems gone. Pipes explains that the fact that people on both sides are taking similar positions gives the United States a unique opportunity to help resolve the conflict. And he then gets into the question of the extent to which American Presidents determine our Middle East policy (it's to a significant extent). And how our record in that region isn't too good: we've come up with a big bunch of plans for resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict and none have gotten off the ground (by the way, in the ensuing fifteen years, we've come up with many more plans and we're no closer).

Perhaps the most interesting essay is near the end of the book, on the media and the Middle East. As Pipes shows, the media do not merely report the news here, they create a fair amount of it. And he quite properly says that the preoccupation on Israel and on Arafat certainly gave us all a very narrow and misleading view of the region. It made Israel appear far more important than it is in real life. And I think it made Arafat appear to be something like the most important person who ever lived. While one can make a hero out of anyone (consider Horst Wessel), it isn't always useful to do so.

Yes, this book is still worth reading, in spite of all the wild happenings and misadventures that have gone on in the region in the past fifteen years.

I had to read this book for my German studies class (Women and Family in the 19th Century). This was the book that moved me the most, enraged me the most and made me think the most. This book not only covers many of the historical events of the 19th century (such as the Prussian War, Hep-Hep riots, and Ernst Haeckel), but it also covers feminism--or rather the repression of feminism that the main character, Agathe, experiences.

Although this book was written in the 19th century, this novel feels quite modern (and is a good translation) in the thought and concepts of feminism and gender equality.

Be warned: this book, as a reflection of a woman's life in the 19th century, is not happy, but is extremely satisfying because it feels so real and is extremely thought provoking.

Do not be turned off by the cost of this book. It is worth the expense and is a good quality printing.

We read Ms. Tatlock's manuscript for a class two years ago before it was published and it was excellent! This is a translation of a nineteenth-century German novel about a girl coming of age in a very repressive bourgeois culture. It was too controversial to be printed in English at the time, and went out of print in Germany when Hitler came into power. This book has a lot of history and a lot to teach, as well as being an interesting (although somewhat disturbing for those of us interested in gender equality) story. Highly recommended!

I had never heard of this author and just happened to pick up this book. I am so glad I did. It is one of the best books I've read in a long time and I plan on reading all the other books by this author. I think it's a " man's" book, but it had me laughing several times. I can imagine what anyone would say when attacked by a barn owl!! Thanks Mr. Bean!!

Gregory Bean does an awesome job of capturing the flavor of life on the high plains and foothills of contemporary Wyoming.He is especially adept in his decription of both Wyoming wildlife and landscape. His characters are authentic modern Westerners and his portrayal of Wyoming pathos stings the imagination . Bean tells a "tight" story, adding no unecessary detail or event and leaving out nothing which might highten the sense of adventure his books give to the reader. I must say that I had trouble putting down all four of his novels once I began reading them.

For the past two Memorial Days I have attended the observance held by the Clarence Kailin chapter of Veterans for Peace in Madison, WI. This book contains the life journeys of members of that group describing how and why they entered the military, their experiences spanning the Spanish Civil War to Iraq, and the paths and struggles that led them to become active members of Veterans for Peace.

The accounts are almost stream of consciousness in nature and are extremely powerful and moving. Each truth teller relates their thoughts and experiences while a soldier and how their life path was affected in the years after. The sharing of their stories is a gift.

I can't imagine reading this book and not feeling in your soul the folly of war.

People have joined the military for a variety of reasons. In the past the draft was a major factor for involuntary servitude, but still many joined (and still do) voluntarily--to please a parent, to get out of a nowhere town, to stay out of jail, to be with a buddy and sometimes even for a specific or amorphous desire to be patriotic. And despite everything that has been said about its falsehood, sometimes because they believe a recruiter who has promised something desirable. This book presents the lives of 18 men and 1 women who joined the military through one of these paths, and who served in most of the wars of the 20th century starting with the 1930s in Spain, ending with the OIL invasion of Iraq. Most were in hot wars, many in combat, and the book shows how they struggled to survive and keep their humanity. All ended up changed by their time in uniform, and all realized that to best serve their country they had to oppose the additional wars their country/countries were embarked on. Each speaks in their own words in separate chapters, each chapter consisting of different sections roughly chronicling why they ended up in the military, their period of service, and then what happened when they returned home and tried to get on with their lives--and ended up opposing their government's further military misadventures. Well put together, decent cost.

This is a great collection of some of the best columns of syndicated columnist Joseph Walker. In them, he shares wisdom, sentiment, and experiences that will tug at your heart and cause you to pause and consider what love has done in your life. A great, quick read!

Columnist Joseph Walker presents Look What Love Has Done: Five-Minute Messages to Lift Your Spirit is a collection of vignettes sure to refresh, reawaken, and engage one's spiritual side. Each writing is only a couple pages long, but touches upon heartfelt warmth, wisdom, and love. A delightful collection to learn from and cherish, whether one reads and reflects upon a few messages at a time or all at once. For example, "Some of us forget that forgiveness and accountability are not mutually exclusive and being sorry - and being forgiven - doesn't free us from the consequences of the choices we make. We can be sorry, forgiven, and accountable. Even if our mistake is big and everyone knows about it."

This is another installment in the hugely popular Lucky Luke series. These English-language editions by 9th Cinebook got my 12-year-old hooked into the Lucky Luke series. The books tend to present a historical situation or event (the discovery of oil, the range wars between ranchers and farmers, etc.) in a humorous, yet educational, light. A fun aspect of the Lucky Luke books is Luke's fictional interactions with real-life personalities from the Old West: Billy the Kid, The Dalton Gang, Jesse James, Calamity Jane and others.

Yet another classic Lucky Luke - the plot is really interesting and is set during the days of the gold rush which was followed by the Oil Rush in the US. Graphics are great as always!

Good value for money.

This is a very short novel, but very good. I can only read the english version, from the translation all i can say is she has a simple style, never too verbose, yet each word is perfectly and simply chosen to precisedly add mood to each scene. A great intro to her writing.

This book is beautifully written. The symbolism in this book is deeper than i have ever read before. It is a very sombre novel with so much to get out. If you can read french then definitely pick this up in french because you will find all of the symbolism in this book to be at a much deeper level. this book was meant for french and unfortunately it does tend to lose some of its meaning and qaulity but it is still just as great of a story. i definitely reccomend this book. it is a great achievment of a great author. The novel seems even more interesting and intriguing when you know that she wrote it in only 13 days. it's a must!!! KH, 16

This was a great book to gain deeper understanding of these 2 very important people in the New Testament.

We often juggle between "doing" and "listening". Camille Fronk Olson has hit the right balance by comparing Mary and Martha to Ourselves.

Tale of Two Sisters: Martha is the hostess with the mostest - preparing who knows what for the LORD, while Mary sits at his feet and listens. Martha pleads with the LORD for some help from Mary. If you don't know this story, it's found in: Luke 10:38-42 KJV

38 ¶ Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.
39 And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word.
40 But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me.
41 And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things:
42 But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.

"Mary, Martha and Me" helps us to see the good in both women, and think about which one we most identify with - or not?

Surprise! Most of us are quite a bit like each of the sisters, in more ways than we might imagine.

Please read this little book, or give it as a gift. It will speak wonderful words to your heart and soul :o)

This is an excellent product, as are most of the Midnight setting roleplaying products.

However, if you want to start using this setting, most of this product has been incorporated into the Midnight Campaign setting second edition core book. Midnight, Second Edition

Just a heads' up so you don't waste money and end up buying the same product twice.

The Fantasy Flight Games campaign setting of Midnight is excellent, and the "Against the Shadow" Players Companion adds a lot of new details to the setting as well as expanding on items covered in the core books.

However my first and only real issue with this book is that it is defined as "A Players Companion" , cripes!!! Don't give it to your players at all, for any DM wanting to allow his/her players a chance to really learn about the world they are in, the players should start off with as little detail as possible, this book blows away that opportunity.

The books contents deal with


1. Race and Class Backgrounds, why do Dorns' think what they think, what do they know that others don't, good stuff for getting players to build pre game backgrounds

2. New prestige classes.

3. Legendry Classes, which are very cool, and take prestige classes to the next level, something that I believe is explored in other FFG books too.

4. New Heroic Paths, some interesting ones, especially the Tactician.

5. More Nexus info

6. New spells and a new spell 'type' using spells as Engraved Runes, these rules are excellent and add another way to use magic while not giving players access to items too swiftly

7. More convent items

8. New weapons and equipment , a focus on concealed weapons and other items that can more easily be carried by the players.

9. Herbs, this section is my favourite part of book, detailing the different herbs, how they are used, different uses, how to prepare, store, and more. Already my players consider Herbalism and Healing to be right next to Tumble as a "must have skill"

All that's missing is a detailed map of where the herbs are located across the world, that would have been a nice addition.

All in all a great book, but keep it to yourself DMs, the info is way to valuable to be given out to the players in one go.