Asia Books

This is an essential guide for travel in Bangladesh. Like all the books in the Lonely Planet travel series, it begins with Facts about the Country, Facts for the Visitor, Getting There and Away, and Getting Around. Next comes a detailed description of Dhaka and the surrounding district, and then separate chapters for each of the major political and geographical divisions in Bangladesh.

Before traveling to Bangladesh, do take the time to read the Dos & Don'ts article in the Facts about the Country chapter. People in Bangladesh are generally friendly and polite, but they tend to be more friendly if you follow their rules for politeness. Men should give local women some distance, and even women should let other women approach them first. People who wear shorts in Bangladesh are risking at least their reputations, if not more. Going about in shorts in public would be akin to wearing a bikini bathing suit on Wall Street- -sure to gain a lot of unwanted attention. Western women will find themselves much more comfortable in local clothing, salwar kamis or saris as absolutely no woman wears Western clothing in Bangladesh. Women packing for a trip in Bangladesh might be better off packing no clothing at all, and just shopping for local clothing upon arrival because what they find in the local markets will be appropriate for both the climate and the culture. (That will also leave more room in your suitcase for gifts on the way in and souvenirs on the way out.)

Many educated people in Bangladesh speak English quite well. But the average person on the street doesn't, so take the time to study the useful expressions from Facts about the Country chapter when you get a chance. While you're at the airport waiting for departure, look around- -surely there's someone there who can help you with your pronunciation.

As for any travel in the developing world, make sure your immunizations are up to date before you go to Bangladesh. Hepatitis A vaccinations are highly recommended and get your travel doctor to write you a prescription for a full run of Cipro (strong antibiotic) to carry with you, and take plenty of rehydration packets. If you get seriously ill while in Bangladesh, it's better to try to get to Dr. Wahab's office (listed in the Dhaka section of this book), rather than the Cholera Hospital, as recommended elsewhere in the book.

As the book mentions, there's a lot to see in Dhaka. There's even more to see outside of Dhaka, where the air is better and the people are friendlier. A great way to get out of town is to book a tour with Prajatan or The Guide (info in the Dhaka chapter). We had a spectacular all-inclusive boat cruise through the Sunderbans with The Guide (Prajatan's boat had recently sunk). Don't miss shopping in the NGO handicraft stores, particularly Aarong (info in the Dhaka chapter).

As with any guidebook, the info for specific hotels and eateries tends to change between the time the authors visited and publication, but the historic sites and regional highlights will always be there. Read this book over several times before you go, and you will be ready as ever to start your adventure.

This is the best lonelyplanet guide book I've ever had. Normally, I find them OK but irritating. Miraculously, this one is different.
Firstly, it's not too big (unlike, say, the Indian one) and is not afraid to leave some good stuff OUT. Secondly, it's very well researched, which is impressive in Bangladesh because information isn't all that readily available. Nor is it patronising in tone!
Best of all, though, is that reference to women travellers isn't restricted to a nauseating passage on what women "shouldn't" do because of the dangers, and then special women's diseases. Instead, it actually suggests that there are advantages to being a woman and special places to visit (such as women's development programs) that might interest women in particular. Yay! Welcome to the 21st century LP! I don't know what this sudden change in tone is due to, but I hope it spreads throughout the LP philosophy.
Otherwise, the information is helpful and up-to-date. The maps are a bit dodgy and could do with some work. For example, Thanchi does NOT lie between Ruma and Keokradung, and nor is Keokradung the highest peak in Bangladesh. The Chittagong map, in particular, is fairly useless.
Still, a very nice job. Very impressive. Very interesting and well written.

This was my first Lonely Planet book and I could not have made the trip without this very informative and helpfull book. I highly recommend any Lonely Planet books to any one traveling abroad.

I found this guide to be very informative and helpful. The maps are a very good basis for getting a sense of where various sections of the cities are located. Some guidebooks are sorely outdated but this book is still quite current. Many of the places mentioned are still in existence. We plan to take several of the recommended trips from this guidebook as well as cycling trips. Since moving to Dhaka I have used this book continually for a reference book. I would highly recommend reading this book before coming to visit Bangladesh!

"A Long Rainy Season" is a refreshing collection of contemporary haiku and tanka written by Japanese women. The poems within speak of loneliness, and breasts, politics and menstruation. It is inspiring to see the haiku eye expressed from women's points of view. There is nothing dry or dull in this volume, and the content is as varied as the women who wrote the poems. I would recommend this to anyone who loves these poetic forms, especially those who just can't see past Basho and his poetic brothers .

If you've been finding haiku and tanka either stuffy, obscure, or dreary and are wondering why so many people seem to like it, this book will set the matter straight. Contained within its pages are dozens of truly excellent poems that engage the reader with surprising, eloquent, original, and evocative images and sensations. Covering far more than the usual range of expression, they touch on everything from being interrogation by the police to motherhood. Usually 'women's literature' tends to focus on the author's narrow view of what women 'ought' to be; this book presents a broad range of women experiencing all manner of things with all sorts of attitudes.

Unfortunately, the book shares one fault with many others of its kind: The notes are insufficient. Yes, each poem should and does stand on its own, but not all of them make them make it across the cultural divide as well as others. For example, Nakamura's 'land-locked bride / tempted offshore -- / the open sea' can be read as the straightforward longing of a woman for a broader horizon, but if the reader also knows that Japanese women often commit suicide by wading into the sea and drowning, then it acquires an intensity that lifts it from the realm of the good to the excellent.

The other thing that disappointed me is that the Japanese originals were not included in the book. For those of us that can read a little Japanese, being able to decipher even a few of the poems in their original form is a great gift. Even those who can't can still look at the shape of the poem on the page and note patterns of sound and syllable that helps to convey some idea of the original.

Nonetheless, the poetry works and works well. It is a breathtakingly beautiful work, and compares favorably to that hoary old classic, Ueda's Modern Japanese Tanka. If you're wanting to introduce somebody to modern Japanese poetry, I'd give them this book over Ueda's book any day - male readers included.

The beautiful unfolding of a tradition that simply has not existed in English until now. Here, we are given an anthology of haiku and tanka by contemporary women poets tackling modern topics - feminism, sexuality, politics - with an elegant aesthetic. Hopefully, this long, rainy, fertile season will
continue with much more from these talented translators of hidden treasures.

As returning travellers will confirm, throughout the Asia-Pacific a tsunami of social and techno-transformation is unceasingly at work, directing outmoded Western notions of how Asia ticks toward the millenial trash bin. Odd therefore, how infrequently arrive the necessary antidotes to such shopworn myths as the "Asian female as Suzie Wong," and "Mother Asia as great slattern of the world," or Asia as "the inscrutable Other," etc. How welcome then comes the panache and sheer breadth of discovery to be found in this exquisite brace of new women's poetry compilations from the Japanese. Whether in English or elsewhere, only occasionally do poetry collections of such excellence come along that find immediate place of honour among readers, other poets, translators and critics alike. "A Long Rainy Season" and "Other Side River" are such books. The first major anthologies of contemporary Japanese women's poetry to arrive in English translation, they compose a brickhouse-solid tribute to the depth and strength of Japan's women poets who--until now--have remained virtually unknown abroad. And how delicious these translations are! The deeper one reads, the more absorbing becomes the enculturation provided by their poetic concerns, which begin to grow with commensurate familiarity--feminism, identity, emergence and constriction, sexuality, child-rearing, aging, existence. Lowitz and her collaborators demonstrate an intuitive sensibility regarding what qualifies among Japanese women poets, and their selections and interpreting skills are convincing. For an awfully long time, what we've had available in English from Japan's women poets has been chiefly the rough-legged classical translations of Rexroth and his disciples. With these two new books, however, Lowitz, Aoyama and Tomioka expand the canon enormously, and it is not overestimating them to number "A Long Rainy Season" and "Other Side River" among the half dozen most significant collections of poetry to arrive internationally in the past few years. That they are presented in handsome, affordably priced editions from Stone Bridge Press, a relatively new press dedicated to translations from the Japanese, makes their happy arrival all the better. Producing volumes such as these cannot have been a light task and we are indebted to such cross-cultural work in service of the muse.

This book is a memoir of a decade past written following a Rockerfeller grant to study the women's emancipation movement in SW PRChina, to later compare and contrast with a similar study in Taipei, Taiwan. This fieldwork is undertaken with the cooperation of the Propaganda Dept, Women's Federation, Chengdu, Szechwan province, PRChina.

Structurally this book is a daily diary which covers, in part, her travels in China as well as some highlights of 100 interviews on women-owned, small business entrepreneurs, that were formed during the Deng's Reform and Opening campaign of the late 80s.

Her POE is Guangzhou, where she decides to initially travel alone much as the natives do. Her travel scenarios, including her visit to Kunming, City of Eternal Spring, in the first 50 pages of the book, where she had local academic acquaintances to show her the sights. She speaks Putonghua, a form of Mandarin, so she can slowly communicate with the locals in a basic form. It appears that she does not like reading Chinese. In part, she writes with the older Wade-Giles form of romanization, so Szechwan is Sichuan and Taipei is Taibei. Armed with an Academy letter, she uses it to travel, as best she can to cajole the ticket sellers and hostel and guesthouse desks, the way the natives do, and cites prices in RMB, and FEC only when there is no other alternative or she wishes to splurge with a hot bath.

The more memorable scenarios is her visit to Kunming, capital of the mountainous Yunnan province p36-44 in December 1988. They travel up the Burma Road a bit and discuss the minority people and their distinctive dress p54-8. She eats the native food and promptly gets a bad case of diarrhea, spends two days in bed. She buys a beautiful Naxi cape from a leather maker that was destined to be another bride's dowry.

Halfway through her anthropological project, her tired workgroup of four demands that she take vacation and unknownst to her, her host department arranged a 7-day holiday with a drive and excursion into far Western Szechwan province to enjoy the Fall colors and stay with a Tibetan family p109-138. Anticipating a boring trip and getting behind in her project, she crankily accompanies the group during another PMS episode. Contrary to her expectation, she enjoys the trip immensely, romps in the forest, and sees blue sky. At each stop, there are local Women's Federation reps to show the group around and introduce them to native families, translate discussions, and describe what they are seeing. They discuss the Tibetan-Han dichotomy and how each culture tries to co-exist.

There are about 20 scenarios on interviews on women-owned businesses in the book. Most businesses are small, from mom & pop format to ones with handfuls of employees. They are the stereotypical grocery, restaurant, garment, and etc format. What I got out of the book was that women's survival during the "Great Leap Forward" and Cultural Revolution was very harsh, especially in the countryside. Initially the Politburo encouraged formation of these businesses, the owners used the profits to improve their houses, and then the tax collectors came to even things out in the socialist's tradition. So the Politburo is inventing their policies at time goes. It seeds flourishing entrepreneur until they become successful, then taxes them for an increased revenue stream.

Her writing is fairly well crafted and she discusses scenarios of general interest, so that one can finish the book without getting truly bored of repetitious fieldwork details. The book, divided into 19 chapters, includes about 20 photos of subjects, maps and travel itineries to follow along. There is no index and any notes are referenced on the bottom of the page. Comparatively, I would consider her prose better and more comprehensive than Paul Theroux, a China travel writer covering the same time period. But Peter Hessler is a better describer of Chinese thought and behavior; of course he spent 2 years at a teachers college and learned the local dialect. But as indicated in the preface, she notes her literary limits and includes her published bibliography of academic work.

The author is a Canadian born, UK raised and educated, who writes in UK prose, so you have to decipher the usual suspects that differ in UK vs US English. She earns her doctorate at Central Michigan U, but is at heart a Brit feminist, and constantly refers to it during her sojourn. From time to time this divorced, pre-menopausal woman titillates the reader with her fantasies as a ravishing redhead in China. To me this was pulp-fiction that the editors must have required her to put in the scripts to help sales. I could have also done without the monthly PMS issues.

She keeps contemporaneous notes on her notebook computer, so hopefully 10 years later, she doesn't over embellish or forget the details of her 6 month sojourn in Chengdu. I read this book at a local library.

She attempts to unify her prose by introducing a historical mentor that went before her, a fellow Brit, Ms Isabella Bird Bishop, who does China research in Szechwan a century earlier. Since she merely references her work in a couple pages p48-9, I find it rather distracting, yet amused that she compared her journey to hers.

Yes, I have read some of Gates' work, but not this one - it doesn't matter in this system. I am merely balancing a double counting of a positive textual review that registers numerically as a zero, thus artificially generating a very low average.
On balance Amazon reviews are useful, but the lack of control leads to this sort of nonsense. Note also the lack of signature on the doubled review; presumably just an error but one wonders given the recent Canadian site boondoggle with these reviews.

I lived in Japan for 9 years and this is a book I want to give friends who ask what it was like. Even though this book is about China, and China and Japan are not the same thing, reading this book helped me to understand much about what I had seen and been through in my own experience. Yes! Yes! Yes! I kept saying when I read it. This is how it was. And here is somebody putting it into words.

There are the underlying truths about Asia, and greater yet underlying truths about crossing between any two cultures. Finally, there are the truths about any woman's life whether she stays home or travels far. Hill Gates calls them as we all have seen them, from getting your period to getting your hair cut in a foreign land. There are the long van rides that constitute "vacations," the forced alcohol, the question of breakfast foods, unheated living quarters, unexplained prohibitions, glorious discoveries of beautiful scenery, and the eternal question of whether being a foreigner means you're also actually a woman.

But most of all, it's about the work. In this case, the work is anthropology. Here again, universal truths apply. Good work gives you an adequate struggle. You want to solve things, you want to apply your own talents. You want to learn and contribute, get and give, laugh and cry. Really, you do. You hope to be changed by it and come back with something to report. You enjoy sinking into the luxuries and comforts of your own familiar culture once you make it back to dry land. And then, one day down the road, you get that hankering to leave those comforts again...What a privilege having this life is. All it costs is the belief that you have control over anything.

My favorite quote from the book ought to warn off anyone who thinks you get to control your own dignity once you choose to put yourself out there. Gates nails it as she observes that, "When it comes to etiquette, the home team has the advantage."

Perhaps a third of the book is about traveling in China, mostly in southwestern China, where private enterprise blossomed during the 1980s. The other two thirds are about trying to do research funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, sponsored and administered by the Sichuan Fulian (Women's Federation--literally "Women United"). Anthropologists' fieldwork memoirs are published after more academic presentation of their research results--in Gates's case, a 1997 book _China's Motor: A Thousand Years of Petty Capitalism_ (that compares what she observed in the 1970s in Taiwan, historical records, and her 1987-96 research in Sichuan). The discomforts, including sickness, depression, frustrations about transportation, food, lodging, access to information, and the misunderstanding by "the natives" of the anthropologist's wisdom and good-will may not be vented in public at all.

Although the author is the major character in the account of her research in the years before and after the crackdown of the PRC gernotacry on private consumption and the accumulation of riches by anyone other than the families of high-placed officials, unlike much contemporary postmodernist anthropology, Gates remains interested in the agency of people (particularly women) trying to prosper in changing and difficult conditions in societies organized differently than the anthropologists' own one. Gates is engagingly honest about her frustrations with Chinese life as well as her joys of solidarity with those she studied and the reader learns some things about living through rapid change in the Chinese interior from her insightful book.

There are very few books on and by queer of color. This book is a very significant anthology that has not been equaled for over 8 years.

This book is an amazing and masterful piece of work. Due to the significant lack of material pertaining to the South Asian Diasporic LBGTQ community one can easily see the relevence and necessity for such a publication. Personal, provacative, critical, analytical, cross-cultural, and ethnically specific are keywords that come to mind in reviewing this title. Highly recommended for any LBGTQ person regardless of ethnicity. A useful resource for any student pursuing academic studies in Queer Studies or South Asian Studies. As relevent today as it was when it was first published!

The South Asian lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender movement has come a long way since 1993, but Ratti's book is still a primary source of information on the subject and hence a milestone for the movement. The chapters are highly variable in quality but are all eminently readable. Readers are strongly urged to check out www.trikone.org and the khush listserv to see where the desi queer movement is heading these days.

This is an extremely important collection of works on gay and lesbian themes from South Asia for two reasons. Firstly, the genres are authentic, and not filtered through the lenses of Western scholars. Secondly, it successfully relates the context in which homosexual identity is constructed in South Asia. It also has some useful historical essays, and great poetry. A must read for ANY student interested in South Asian gay and lesbian culture.

This is a book to dive into, and lose yourself for days. Madame Chiang Kai-Shek is that good a story, and this is that good an account of her life. Madame Chiang used her political cunning and legendary drive to seduce supporters to her side of China's epic civil war during the middle part of the 20th century.

The Nationalist regime, headed by her husband, was hated by the Chinese people for its notorious brutality and corruption. But as portrayed by Madame Chiang, especially to American audiences, Chiang Kai-shek's government was a modern, educated bulwark of democracy and freedom for a country whose history had allowed little of either. Indeed, Madame Chiang personified the vaunted hopes, bitter disappointments and complex misunderstandings of the U.S.-China relationship, which vacillated wildly during her exceptional 105-year lifetime. Laura Tyson Li's incisive new biography, rises to the tall task of capturing this pivotal figure in all her splendor and humiliation, against a backdrop of war, revolution and unending political turmoil. Li, a journalist with a decade of experience in Asia, accurately portrays her as "beautiful, vain, witty, spirited, capricious, scheming, selfish, and driven."

What a character. What a tale.

The book opens in the waning days of China's second-to-last emperor in the late 1890s, when Mayling Olive Soong was born in Shanghai, the youngest daughter of a businessman who had made a fortune selling Bibles and presided over a family of savvy, idealistic and recklessly ambitious children. One married Sun Yat-sen, China's first president. Another became finance minister and acting prime minister of Nationalist China. Another became one of China's richest women. Mayling became Madame Chiang Kai-shek.

In an era when few girls learned to read and fewer traveled, Mayling was schooled in Georgia, then graduated from Wellesley College, where she excelled at French, violin and religious studies. She returned to Shanghai in 1917 just as China lurched into a bloody warlord period, and soon she was courted by the most severe warlord of all, Chiang Kai-shek. He divorced one wife and sent another off to Columbia University before Mayling agreed to marry him.

During World War II, Madame Chiang became a superb envoy to the United States, where her address to Congress in 1943 thrilled Washington, and her barnstorming across the country won renewed support and money to defeat the Japanese. In China, she was a poised partner to her husband, softening his imperiousness while sharpening his political machinations.

In Li's telling, husband and wife (who shared a bedroom with a screen separating their beds) could not have differed more. He was an early riser; she stayed up late watching movies. He was ascetic; she insisted on luxury. Still, they called each other 'Dar' (short for 'darling') and for years collaborated to cement fragile political alliances and keep a shaky hold on power.

The book has delicious tidbits, such as an affair with Republican presidential nominee Wendell Wilkie and her insistence on getting silk sheets when she stayed in President Franklin D. Roosevelt's White House.

Overall, Li delivers a thoughtful portrait of a complex woman and resists the considerable temptation to crucify her. That is a refreshing contrast to the shock-and-awe approach seen in so many recent books on prominent figures in China's recent history. Li deconstructs critical historical events with skill: the Xian Incident, when Chiang Kai-shek was kidnapped by rebellious generals; the 50-year house-arrest of the leading kidnapper, with whom Madame Chiang developed a curious friendship; Madame Chiang's mysterious disappearances for months at a time, caused, Li thinks by physical and mental illnesses, including debilitating hives, breast cancer and nervous breakdown.

More reporter than writer, Li assiduously draws on Madame Chiang's extensive personal correspondence, from archives around the world, to explain each stage of her drama. It's a spellbinding period of history. And it does not end well for the Chiangs. The Nationalist regime crumbled to the Communists in 1949. The Chiangs fled to Taiwan, admitting no fault, but blamed President Truman and vowed to retake the mainland. That dream faded gradually after Chiang Kai-shek died in 1975.

Madame Chiang's antagonistic stepson, Chiang Ching-kuo, would oversee a murderous suppression of dissidents as head of Taiwan's intelligence network. Paradoxically, as president, he later paved the way for the launch of Taiwan's democracy just before his death in 1988. That year, at age 90, she tried to rally Taiwan's Old Guard and prevent the onset of democracy she once spoke of so often. She failed.

Madame Chiang lived out her days in New York, watching China and Taiwan as one became capitalist and the other became a democracy. Despite her illnesses, she lived until 2003.

Ultimately, Madame Chiang was "a deeply flawed heroine," Li writes, "that rare creature who stuck resolutely to her beliefs, however misguided some of them may have been, through the decades and the trials."

Reading "Madame Chiang Kai-shek: China's Eternal First Lady" was like going through everything in the attic and leaving nothing unexamined. Tyson-Li covers every aspect of Madame Chiang's life without ever letting us forget that life's relevance for today. The "Dragon Lady's" significance never disappears in the wealth of the personal, historical, political, psychological, medical, and religious dimensions of her complex life. Her fanatical anti-Communism calls to mind Richard Nixon's personal crusade. Her use of religion to define her and her husband's sense of destiny parallels certain leaders who employ religious language for similar ends. Her manipulation of people and events exceeds the ambitions of any demagogue who has come to believe his or her own public statements.

All this and more the author achieves with vivid prose that takes you into private parlors where Madame Chiang herself has invited you to tea, but leaves you feeling that just maybe everything you've heard is really true and that your hostess is neither monster nor statesman, but an enigmatic individual using the world as a stage to work out her insecurities.

It's surprising to note that this is the first biography of one of the most politically influential women of modern times, but MADAME CHIANG KAI-SHEK: CHINA'S ETERNAL FIRST LADY remains the only title to provide the complete story of a woman who seized unofficial and official power during China's civil war. Her position against Chinese Communism and her diplomatic relations affected decades of Chinese-American relations, so this book is key to a thorough understanding of not just the woman, but Chinese politics and influences in particular.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Laura Tyson Li has assembled a spectacular bio. It's page turner with the authority and detail of an encyclopedia. LTL has managed to keep her opinions out of the text. It isn't until the last chapter when through an informed discussion on the Madame's possible motivations that LTL becomes subjective.

While almost every aspect of this life is intriguing, certain people and episodes stand out. I had forgotten Zhang Xueliang until he emerged after a 50 year house arrest, after which he & his wife move to Hawaii. Apparently he was able to keep his pre-war fortune, or had been cared for financially; he is deemed a friend of the Madame. (Another 5 year house arrest of a physician who botches an operation of the General suggests house arrest is a common punishment for "friends" and other professionals.) Madame's war time US appeal for funds, with its cross country caravan of staff whom MCKS treats "as coolies" is certainly an episode worth a small volume. (The $800,000 she raises goes to her personal account.) While the Wendel Wilkie relationship (true or false) is intriguing, I fixed on the William H. Donald relationship, which may have been a professional friendship and refuge from her husband's authoritarianism, but her end of life treatment of him suggests something else.

There are a host of issues worthy of their own books. Perhaps these books exist but I don't know about them. One issue is the "arrival" of 2 million mainlanders to the island of Formosa, who's 7 million citizens seemed to have some degree of prosperity under the Japanese. While the Chaings arrive with resources, others huddle in makeshift places and cry at night. "Invasion" appears to be a better word for this arrival (particularly after 2/28), but it is certainly not portrayed as such (or allowed to be portrayed as such) by the Nationalists who felt entitled to rule and had the resources to make it so. Even later, Madame objects to the appointment of Taiwanese to government posts.

Another issue deserving its own book is Madame's money. Whether or not the NYC exterminators actually saw it, a closet of gold bars is not far fetched. For maybe 30 years, Madame's "charity" received a % of all imports to Taiwan. There were several "vacation" homes in Taiwan, one built at a cost of $2 million. Then, the resources brought from the mainland to Taiwan. This money provided Madame with luxury and a large staff until her death. How large was it? How was it acquired (any from the US war assistance?) and where did it go?

MCKS can be noted for her longevity alone. There must be something Guinness-worthy about her survival despite many years in a war zone, continued medical treatments, operations including several for breast cancer, nervous afflictions, a late in life automobile accident, lifelong cigarette smoking (and potential drug abuse) and at least one assassination attempt. Any one of these factors would tend to predict an early demise, not a life of 103 years.

If you read this book, it's riveting, so be prepared to give it time. Also, the level of detail might make continuity difficult if you have to make gaps in your reading time.

Meet one of the most gallant warriors of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. This biography depicts ARVN Major General Hieu under different facets: his personal life, his military career, his military exploits, and his unjust death. It reveals General Hieu as an unsung hero, whose tactical and strategic skills put him among the best soldiers of modern times, at par with General Rommel of Germany, Patton of the United States, Montgomery of England and Leclerc of France.

The Internet format of this biography has received wide acceptance from its readers with more than 20,000 visitors the first year. One reader comments, "Besides its military historical value, it has room for deep, emotional feelings," and another reader writes, "Of all the military stories I have read, yours is the most touching. What a fine officer General Hieu must have been, so very much an all around person. I did not know him. But I am sure glad I have read about him; it seems as if he comes alive again through your stories, and once again he is an inspiring figure, as his modesty transcends the years," Vietnam War Veterans have found it "fascinating", "incredibly factual," "exceptionally superior," and something that "may well be required reading in high schools, military college..."

Containing first hand military documents pertaining to operational orders, it provides a rare presentation for ordinary people; one is allowed to see how a divisional commanding general plans and executes his battles. The story of an individual life, this biography offers an illuminating insight of the ARVN and provides a unique perspective of the Vietnam War.

This book gives answers to the following questions:

- The NVA has General Vo Nguyen Giap. Does the ARVN have someone comparable?

- How did General Hieu score next to General John Norton, Jr of the US 1st Cavalry Division?

- How did General Hieu score next to General Albert Milloy of the US 1st Infantry Division?

- What did General Dennis McAuliffe of the US Big Red One Division think about General Hieu?

- How did Colonel John Hayes, Senior Advisor of ARVN 5th Division, evaluate General Hieu?

- How did the ARVN 22nd Division score next to the US 1st Cavalry Division?

- How did the ARVN 5th Division score next to the US 1st Infantry Division?

- What role did General Hieu play in the Ia Drang Valley Battle (US 1st Cavalry Division), Pershing Operation (US 1st Cavalry Division), Dong Tien Operations (US 1st Infantry Division), Total Victory 46 Operation (US 1st Cavalry Division)?

- How did the ARVN Airborne Division score next to the US 173rd Airborne Brigade and the US 101st Airborne Division?

- etc...

This biography, a reader would notice at the outset, is not written by a historian, an investigative reporter, or a professional biographer. It originates instead from the pen of a younger sibling seeking to resolve the mystery surrounding his brother's untimely death. This legitimate curiosity has evolved into a collection of articles depicting General Nguyen van Hieu as a family man, a patriot, a military strategist, and a man of integrity. This collection of articles authored by siblings, friends, and fellow military men unexpectedly converges to project a dynamic image of an intelligent soldier and brilliant strategist engaged in the twofold quixotic task of overcoming a corrupted military hierarchy and fighting the invading North Vietnamese communist army. The book presents the reader with glimpses of a man living the yin aspect of the Vietnamese society (egalitarian, flexible, spiritual, congenial) and, at the same time, confronting the yang aspect of the neo-Confucianist military and government hierarchy (male dominant, rigid, self-serving, elitist, concerned with face and status). Without any claim to being systematic or thorough in his research, the author has nevertheless gathered a number of revealing personal anecdotes, testimonies from living witnesses, declassified documents from the National Archives, letters from former military academy classmates, phone interviews, excerpts from books, and so forth. From this cacophony of voices emerges the image of a virtuous man, caring father, loving spouse, and competent general respected by Vietnamese and American military personnel of all ranks. The reader would no doubt be surprised to discover this unsung hero in the stark background of negative memories of the Vietnam War and betrayal of the Vietnamese people by the neo-Confucianist military and government hierarchy. Though modest in its presentation, the book manages to do justice to a dedicated soldier and competent general, who is mostly unknown to both the Vietnamese and the American public. After reading this fascinating biography, the reader comes away wondering what might have been had this uncommon general, who epitomized the true Vietnamese people, been allowed to fully exercise his military competence.END

This biography, a reader would notice at the outset, is not written by a historian, an investigative reporter, or a professional biographer. It originated instead from the pen of a younger sibling seeking to resolve the mystery surrounding his brother's untimely death. This legitimate curiosity has evolved into a collection of articles depicting General Nguyen van Hieu as a family man, a patriot, a military strategist, and a man of integrity.

This collection of articles authored by siblings, friends, and fellow military men unexpectedly converges to project a dynamic image of an intelligent soldier and brilliant strategist engaged in the twofold unenviable task of overcoming a corrupted military hierarchy and fighting the invading North Vietnamese communist army.

The book presents the reader with glimpses of a man living the yin aspect of the Vietnamese society (egalitarian, flexible, spiritual, congenial) and, at the same time, confronting the yang aspect of the neo-Confucianist military and government hierarchy (male dominant, rigid, self-serving, elitist, concerned with face and status).

Without any claim to being systematic or thorough in his research, the author has nevertheless gathered a number of revealing personal anecdotes, testimonies from living witnesses, declassified documents from the National Archives, letters from former military academy classmates, phone interviews, excerpts from books, and so forth. From this cacophony of voices emerges the image of a virtuous man, caring father, loving spouse, and competent general respected by Vietnamese and American military personnel of all ranks. The reader would no doubt be surprised to discover this unsung hero in the stark background of negative memories of the Vietnam War and betrayal of the Vietnamese people by the neo-Confucianist military and government hierarchy.

Though modest in its presentation, the book manages to do justice to a dedicated soldier and competent general, who is mostly unknown to both the Vietnamese and the American public. After reading this fascinating biography, the reader comes away wondering what might have been had this uncommon general, who epitomized the true Vietnamese people, been allowed to fully exercise his military competence.

(P.S. Please use this book review instead of the earlier version I sent to Amazon.com this morning. Thank you. Tri V. Nguyen)

This text presents and illuminating perspective into the highest Vietnamese traditions, and is a fitting posthumous tribute to a ranking member of South Viet Nam's highest military cadres. Written as a sibbling biography, it is richly peppered throughout with mild bias, something freely acknowledged by the author, which nevertheless does not detract from the wealth of objective information, and data that are only enriched by a personal, if family-oriented point of view. This book extolls the virtue of Vietnamese tradition with the highest esteem, as exemplified in this in-depth analysis of one man's contributions to his motherland, set against the backdrop of one of southeast Asia's most tragic and sad chapters in history. Factual information is well presented with adequate supporting documentation and numerous pictures give this historical personage a very vivid and intimate familiarity. The details of some of the information presented can be simultaneously revealing and startling. This book is well-balanced in the extremes: One man's virtues and rapid progression through the military ranks being consistently contrasted with the insidious prevalence or corruption or corrupt practices by the government which he is sworn to protect and defend. The admiration of the author for the Major General lies in stark contrast to the shameful behaviors of so many government officials at all levels, including the presidency, which must bear the brunt of the responsibililty for the eventual downfall of the government of the Republic of Viet Nam. "I am only the instrument of my brother. General Hieu's biography is a self-expression ... General Hieu drew a clear-cut line between the two military and private life areas. This explains why he was able to maintain his integrity and virtue while working with other corrupt and low-moral generals ... The majestic aura that soldiers perceived in General Hieu's personality came from his inner strength, not from an artificial majesty requiring the use of a general's baton, or a combat camouflaged outfit, or a cigar, or an imposing guard detail, etc... And thus they genuinely respected and loved him dearly ..." General Hieu was assassinated in his office headquarters on 8 April 1975. Except in the fact that he was shot to death, official reports and eyewitness testimony remain internally contradictory. by: Dr Michael JM Raffin 1st. Brigade, 5th. Infantry Division (Mechanized) Province of Quang Tri, Viet Nam July, 1968 to March 1969

This book is okay, I had to read it in school. I've read better books before but if you are a person who likes to read historical books. then this book might be the type you're looking for. It's told from the point of views of 17year old Simon and the Roman Commander, Flavis Silva. it's Interesting how you get to know what's going on both sides of the 'war' During the last few months before the Romans won

Though I wouldn't recommend this book for younger audiences because of the violence and references to camp harlots, it was a compelling drama. Besides the political and religious aspects of the story, there is the underlying love story of unrequited love between Simon and Deborah, who is pledged to his best friend, John. It is the story of courage and hope despite overwhelming odds. By writing from the Roman general's point of view also, we get a look at his insights into the situation as well as political greed, corruption, honor, and cruelty. The themes in this novel are universal.

This book held my interest from the first pages. It's told from the Roman commander's viewpoint and the son of the Jewish leader who wants to be a physican and succeeds just at the time when he must kill those he loves. The last chapters had me in tears. It really brings alive the people and problems of the period. Imagine the Romans, surrounding the fortress, having to haul in water and supplies for months in the desert heat, and the Jews - trying to stop the building of the ramp which would let the Romans use their battering ram to break into their fortress. Don't have to be Jewish to find the book fascinating

Gloria Miklowitz has written an interesting work of historical fiction, that will leave young readers awed at the Zealots courage, and disgusted with the Roman resolve to conquer all. The author uses several devices to keep young adults both male and female reading including the friendship/conflict between the young narrator and John, the rising military leader for the Jews and their struggles in loving the same young woman. Alternating voices of the young Jewish narrator and the commander of Roman forces are easily distinguished and insightful. Adults and young adults will have plenty to discuss and think about. Not recommended for ages ten and under, for the mass suicide at the end would be both frightening and difficult for younger children to comprehend.

Abildskov perfectly portrays the heartbreak of loving more than one can be loved. In liquid prose, she both startles and cajols, rendering a painfully honest tale of heartbreak. I read this beautiful book in a single sitting.

This is a lovely work about a women's journey to find what love might mean- and no way is it trite. Ms. Abildskov is placed in a foreign country with new stimulations, finding for herself that love can show itself in a variety of forms and yet hasn't she maybe felt love before without recognizing its subtle ways? I hated to have this story end. I held myself back reading- trying to let each moment penetrate my feelings as they might have Ms. Abildskov. Her descriptions are as beautiful as they are heavy, letting me visualize and feel the weight of her emotions.
A lyrical non-fiction memoir that left me feeling like I had been granted a gentle good-bye:
"Are you sorry to go? I ask
Kind of, one woman says
In a way chimes the other. But it's time, you know what I mean? You can't stay forever. I mean this isn't real life." (page 115)
Stay inside the real life Ms. Abildskov recreates and savor the moments. I for one was very sorry to go.

I picked this up because I thought it was about teaching in Japan. Having taught abroad (China and Egypt), and having taught many Japanese students in the US, I thought it was a travel book about the teaching experience.

It turned out to be something very different. It is common knowledge among expat teachers, that some US men teach abroad to meet women, who "unlike American women, know how to treat a guy". As I got beyond the introductory pages about sensing and "watching" Japan, I wondered if this book was about the reverse, liberated American women shattering a taboo and having sexual exploits in a foreign land.

Further into the book, there is more insight. This is a highly sensitive person, looking for a place, affirmation, love, or maybe permanance in a world that hasn't offered it to her. Needs transcend her awareness of the wake she leaves behind. Despite her deep love (or is it need) for one man, she entertains two others. The man she loves wants her in some way, but is emotionally unavailable. Of the other two, one is married, and the other, as a worker in a noodle factory is not a serious suitor. I would expect that both have emotional scars from their relationship with the author. None of the three men speaks English well enough to have a normal, let alone nuanced, conversation with her.

The book chronicles, after 7 years retrospect, her memories of the encounters, from her observation, along with a backdrop of the intrigue of a foreign adventure.

I would recommend this to anyone going through a romantic breakup. Like a conversation with a fellow sufferer, it could offer a balm. The pain comes through the detail of obsession for the lost. The writing is very good, and I like the remembered conversations italicized and not quoted, since there is no way they can be exact. For those looking for a travel adventure, or insight into teaching English, this is not the book.

The cover is great. The oragami figures in subtle colors clearly evoke Japan.

I could NOT put this book down. Ms. Abildskov has created a story of such difficult beauty and courage, such clear and striking insight, such sweetness and humor and fury, every page took my breath away. A journey, from the moment I opened the book to the wee hours of the morning. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

I found a reference to this book while trying to find an authentic MiG-21 camouflage paint scheme. The book is excellent in its limited coverage and contains very specialized material. Not designed for the casual aviation reader.

As a US Navy Radar Intercept Officer flying in the back-seat of Phantom IIs, I had two engagements with Mig-21s during the Vietnam war...won one, lost one. Winning is a lot more fun, that's for sure, but both types are very interesting. Reading Istvan Toperczer's book, "Mig-21 Units of the Vietnam War" was like taking a little peek inside the Mig pilots' play book...it gave me an idea of how they planned and set up their attacks... and it reinforced for me that we already had pretty good ideas of what was coming when we took them on in aerial combat.

This book has a lot of superb photographs, drawings, illustrations and words which all flow together very nicely and make reading it a real enjoyment. If you are interested in fighter-flying it will be very interesting, and for those who actually fought against the Migs in Vietnam, or tried to engage one, it will be intensely interesting. It was a unique experience for me to read this book and be able to critique it from the vantage point of one who actually lived through it. I highly recommend it as a purchase, and certainly it will make a great gift for any aviation buff, most particularly any military pilot. This book is not just another "book about flying", it is the product of some very thorough research and painstaking efforts to match-up all the reports by Dr. Toperczer, and reading it is like reading a colorful history book on a subject which you love.

Dr Istvan Toperczer has produced several books on the North Vietnamese People's Air Force and surfaced more photography and information on their side of the battle for the skies over North Vietnam against the United States than all the other researchers combined who have tried to elicit this type information. This volume is a welcome addition the Osprey series that deals with type aircraft (in this case the MiG-21) in conflicts. As the thirtieth anniversary of the conclusion of hostilities over North Vietnam approaches in 2003, it is fitting that this work has arrived for the many veterans and interested readers to be able to add to the considerable work on the subject which is always light on the aspect of the NVPAF perspective. The ability of this fledgling air force to introduce the MiG-21 into combat with "home-grown" pilots with a modicum of success in challenging the latest US fighters is a worthy read.

There has been some very good writing on the USAF side of the airwar over North Vietnam(for example 'Thud Ridge' by Col, J Broughton). This book gives at least a glimpse of what that war looked like from the other side.
The dialogue has a slightly scripted feel, but given that English is a second (at least) language for most of those involved, and the descriptions are to some degree at least the formalised language of the combat report, this is perhaps understandable.
The production is to Osprey's usual high standard with an interesting selection of colour profiles, and some very striking b/w's, the shot of a MiG 21 being airlifted into position under a Mil 6 being particularly memorable. Another feature is the attempt to reconcile the claims of each side with admitted losses.
Primarily a modelling resource, this is also a useful historical document, drawn from primary sources. I found it interesting enough to look for the author's other volume on MiG 17/19 units.

Thoroughly recommended

LTC Burruss, wrote one of the definitive books on the use of indigineous troops in the Vietnam conflict. The tactics, techniques and procedures learned by the men of the Mike Force in battle, have now been passed to a new generation of Special Forces soldier now fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq.

COL(R) John Tobin, SF

It may be fitting but it's hardly proper that the most popularly acclaimed works of literature from America's most distinctively unpopular war -- among them, Michael Herr's "Dispatches" and Phillip Caputo's "A Rumor of War" -- reflect the growing socio-political ambivalence that undermined America's resolve in that war. It's understandable but a shame that first-person accounts by participants in the war, such as L.H. Burruss' "Mike Force," that project the author's strong belief that what he and his comrades did was necessary and honorable were largely ignored by the arbiters of popular literary taste. It is encouraging that "Mike Force," published in 1989, has been reissued. Along with a new wave of war literature exemplified by Mark Bowden's widely popular "Black Hawk Down," this revival points to an emerging readership that apparently, at long last, accepts soldiering as a worthy vocation.

One would hope that readers of this new wave of war literature will work their way back to discover such gems as "Mike Force," which give a needed balance to the collective memory of a war that for too long has worn the dunce's conical cap.

Burruss, who tried teaching high school English before joining the Army, and who taught again briefly after his first hitch before deciding to make the Army a career, has a ghost-writer's skill with language. What lifts "Mike Force" far above the usual ghost-written account is that Burruss' narrative smokes and crackles with reality, losing nothing -- neither detail nor passion -- in its translation from principal to interpreter.

Burruss includes everything -- his irritations and agonies, confessions of bad judgment and frank acknowledgments of competence, moments of weakness and triumph and even the irreverent hijinks and scrapping of boys learning to be men in life's toughest academy. Burruss retired as a lieutenant colonel and deputy commander of the elite Delta Force. His book is honest, unpretentious and illuminating. He includes well-turned, heartfelt, haunting poems, which he composed on or near the battlefield, usually in tribute to a friend lost or severely wounded.

It's high time for "Mike Force" to be included among the books that must be read by anybody who wants a balanced picture of the Vietnam War and by all who simply want an unfiltered glimpse of what it's like to carry their country's flag into humankind's darkest quarter.

Don't be fooled by the trashy men's magazine cover on this book. It is one of the best accounts of the Vietnam War from a soldier's perspective that I've read. Those looking for a chest-thumping narrative will be surprised to discover a writer of surprising range, subtlety and honesty, a soldier who never paints himself as a hero, and emerges as more of one because of it. We will never fully understand the Vietnam experience in this country until we embrace the memories of those who served, who risked their lives and saw some of the best in their generation killed. When the best accounts of that episode are compiled, "Mike Force" will be among them.

LTC L.H. "Bucky" Burruss is the real thing. He's one of the original members of what's known as Delta Force and even received praise from the British SAS.

Bucky lead a Special Force "Mike Force" in Vietnam. These were quick-reaction forces composed of Montagnard tribesmen led by American or Australian Special Forces advisors. The Mike Forces were probably the least known of all of the SF activities in Vietnam, but they saw plenty of action. Bucky was in the thick of the fight with guys like Mike Donahue, Larry Dring, "Blue Max" Pfeistenhammer and Clyde Sincere. The book is well worth the read if you want to learn about some of America's "Silent Professionals."